


The Sanibel Curse

by neonneonmood



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reality Show, Anxiety, Blackmail, Bro is daves dad, Drugs, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Greediness, Horror, Humanstuck, Island - Freeform, M/M, Mentions of Rape, Miami, Mystery, Past Abuse, Romance, Sex Trafficking, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Smut, Torture, Trauma, aranea is the host, criminals, dark secrets, dirk is daves little brother, karkat cries a lot in this fic, maybe smut ok, pretty deep shit man, reality t.v show, reality tv show, sadists, sorry - Freeform, spades is human form also, spades slick is the creator, the felt are human vers, the felt are producers, then yeah mama lalonde is his mom obv, trolls are humans, uhh other shit, uwu this is soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-02 19:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16793200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonneonmood/pseuds/neonneonmood
Summary: Your name is Dave Strider in hopes of winning $100 billion dollars to preform in a famous Reality TV Show called ‘Sanibel Island’. You can finally provide enough food and pay rent on time for both  yourself, and your little brother Dirk. But— great news! Fortunately you have been nominated to win the money, but there’s a catch; you have to challenge against the 11 other contestants for the money. Try not to get eliminated, and you win.Do you take the deal?Yes. Yes the fuck you do.P.S. THESE HOES IS GREEDY.





	1. Miami

**Author's Note:**

> Miami // Kali Uchis ft. Bia  
> hey gays, so yeah i created another story!! im really excited to start this one bc i actually planned everything out. please enjoy!! first chapters are relatively short for me so please bear with me lmfao

Winning the lottery is something you’ve tried many times in your life, but it doesn’t compare to this. Exposing yourself to the whole world for $100 billion dollars feels like a good bargain, right? I mean, you don’t have to pay $5 for each ticket to get a jackpot of $100,000 dollars.

Nevertheless, this is probably the _last_ thing you’d do as an option. 

You’re not rich by any means, if anything your nothing even compared to rich. You are struggling to even pay rent and get food into you & your little brothers stomach. So, maybe nominating for ‘The Sanibel Island’ will give you a shot at life.

And it fucking did.

You didn’t believe it at first, of course, but your fingers are trembling over your phone in absolute shock.

You’ve been fucking nominated. 

Dirk is the first person that comes to mind and you _have_ to tell him. You’ve been nominated. You have been fucking nominated! God actually gave you a chance at life, and it’s time to shoot your fucking shot.

You get up so quickly that you bump your knee harshly against the mini coffee table, you wince at the pain but ignore it.

You’re way too fucking happy and shocked right now. Dirk will freak the fuck out when he hears the great news.

You barge into Dirks room, as usual he is tinkering with the back of his mini toy robots.

He jumps up without hesitation, dropping his things on the floor obviously startled by the sudden intervene.

“What the fuck Dave?!” he looks at you with wide, alarming eyes. 

Shit. You forgot he get’s triggered by stuff like that,(because you do too) so you note to not do it again.

You brush it off, hoping he’ll forgive your sudden ignorance and get straight to the damn point. Your smiling like a goddamn idiot that won the lottery.

Well, something like that.

“Dirk, do you know _Sanibel_ _Island_?”

Dirk picks up his toy robot and puts it on top of his bed. He looks at you and crosses his arms.

“That new little reality show?”

“Yeah, little dude. I got nominated. We’re gonna be fucking rich!” 

Dirk’s face instantly lights up, grinning like a kid on Christmas day. You pick him up under his armpits, spinning around cheering and chanting how rich you guys are gonna be. 

You kiss Dirk on the cheek, he does the same and his small arms wrap around your neck. 

You’re going to be rich!

-

A week later it took you _some_ convincing for your sister Roxy and her wife Jane to take care of Dirk while your gone. You were yet to find out that your sister Rose has been nominated as well, fucking _peachy_.

You arrive at the airpot at 10am, on a Monday. Florida at this time of day is extremely hot and sometimes a bit windy, since your by the ocean. You’re originally from Texas but visit Roxy in Miami to celebrate holidays. Rose lives in New York but she visits Roxy for the holidays aswell. 

But this isn’t for the holidays, this is for brand _new_ beginning. A goddamn clean slate.

In front of you is a bigass private plane, and ironically enough your the last one there since your hella fuckin’ late.

Around you is a group of people you’ve never seen before, but of course not Rose. She looks like she got here a couple minutes ago since she’s not talking to anyone.

She finally sees you and walks over, her curly platinum bob that’s tucked by a lilac headband; still the same.

She looks at you with a playful smile, the one you remember.

“Why, hello brother. Didn’t expect _you_ to be here. Care to confide in me?”

As always, Rose never changes. She still talks like she has her shit together and quite frankly, she really doesn’t. But of course your not just going to roast her in your mind all day, you have a contest to win.

You return her smile and sarcastically make fun of her, “Well, well, well, _Rose_. You look like you haven’t given up your goth phase. But if you _want_ to know, I’m just here to get the damn money then hop the fuck outta here.”

Of course, that’s not the reason why you’re here and Rose knows that. But of course you won’t admit it outloud.

“And _you_ still talk like you own a popular twitter page. Anyways, I’m going to go socialize with our fellow contestants. Maybe you should do the same?” She turns around gracefully as her purple luggage trails behind her.

You roll your eyes and mutter a ‘sure..’ as she walks away, observing the players around you.

You find a girl with big black curly hair talking to two boys, cheery and animated. One of the boys look totally interested into what she’s saying, although the other one is totally unamused.

The girl notices you staring, well you _think_ she does (because you have your shades on). Her green eyes observe you curiously with a bright buck-toothed grin. She stops her conversation with the other two boys and waves for you to come over. 

“Heeeyy! You there! Come over here!”

You awkwardly walk over to them, the girl makes a little more room for you to join the circle.

Her smile is friendly and welcoming, she waves as she introduces herself, “Hello late contestant! I’m Jade Harley, this is John,” she points to the blue-eyed boy first as he waves, “and this is Karkat!” the shorter boy rolls his eyes, grumbling. 

“Dave Strider,” you say stiffly.

Jade grins even wider (if it even can, goddamn), and pulls John in by a headlock. “Awesome! Me and John are here to win the 100 billion for charity! Karkat won’t tell us why he’s here so don’t bother asking him. What brings you here, Dave?”

John is squirming under Jades grasp viciously and cursing her name. You frown. Poor guy.

“Just... my own reasons,” your mind instantly trails off to Dirk and how the money would benefit the both of you.

You continue, “But this show seems pretty dope, I’m in like a knock-off _Big_ _Brother_ or some shit.”

Jade let’s go of Johns head and focuses on you. He gasps for air dramatically, holding onto Karkat for support. 

“I don’t really know what that is but, it sounds fun!” 

You raise your brows in shock, “Wait, hold on- you don’t know what _Big_ _Brother_ is?” 

Jade bites her lip nervously, shaking her head. Your mind subconsciously turns to Karkat, and he’s just as shocked as you. 

“Imagine this; Jade fucking Harley is on a reality tv show and doesn’t know what _Big_ _Brother_ is. The thing about that is, I don’t have to imagine it. Because I’m _witnessing_ it right before my eyes. This is a fucking abomination. Harley, please tell me your lying or I will be _forced_ to believe that you’ve lost many braincells on your way here.”

Wow, and he finally speaks. This dude is a fucking crack-up.

“W-well I mean, I come from a very stranded island with horrible wifi so you can’t blame me...” 

“Then how the fuck did you get on this show?!” Karkat practically throws his arms in the air in frustration.

He is really taking _Big_ _Brother_ seriously, damn.

“It’s a bit complicated but basically John helped me participate in this.. _game_ so we both, coincidentally, got picked.” She turns to John for back-up and he nods his head. 

“Yeah! It’s true, I had to do a lot of shit to help her out though. But... we’re here!” he puts his hands on his hips.

Karkat scoffs, “John, _please_ tell me you know what _Big_ _Brother_ is then. So far Dave is the only one catching my interest and you’re all making my brain rot.” 

John bites his lips and slowly speaks up, afraid of Karkat’s response.

“Uh... No?”

Karkat stares at him for a moment, waiting for him to say he’s joking. He gives up and rubs his fingers to his temples in obvious frustration. 

“You know what? I give up. Fuck this. I can’t believe you guys aren’t educated on this shit. A fucking tragedy, you guys both are.”

He practically stomps away, and damn can he walk real fast given how short he is. 

Suddenly you all hear a horn being blown by a group of people, some that must be the producers since they’re uniformed, and a girl with short black hair.

Also a creepy as fuck pale old man with an eye-patch. Uhh. 

He grabs out a mega-phone, and turns it on, voice strained and raspy. 

“Hello fellow contestants! I can see that all of you are here.. welcome to _The_ _Sanibel_ _Island_! I am the creator of this show, Spades Slick. Allow me to introduce to you, your host...” he turns to the black-haired girl and gives the mega-phone to her.

“Hello everyone! I am Aranea, I’m the host of this show so I’ll be giving you a tour around the island. These group of men by us are the producers,” she assures her hand to the group. “We’ll be airing tomorrow, but for now take a look at that big private plane in front of you!”

All of you turn to the private plan. she continues, “One by one, please head inside and make yourselves comfortable. It’ll take about an hour to land there so it won’t be long. Please enjoy yourselves! And again, welcome to Sanibel Island!” 

As soon as Aranea is done with her cheesy speech, she shuts off the mega-phone and walks away with both the producers and the creator. You turn to Jade a little confused, she gives you the same look.

All of you get into the plane, and it’s true by popular demand that you _do_ get there by an hour. The whole time you just chat with Jade and John.

You find out that Jade really likes gardening and John... unfortunately really likes _Nick_ _Cage_. 

Majority of the ride is you making fun of John as he fan-girls, _or_ _no_ , excuse you, fan-guys about _Nick_ _Cage_. Jade joins in on you and it’s pretty amusing to say the least. 

-

You all drive to the ‘reality tv show house’ which is a big ass mansion. Also on the way here you notice that it’s more on the Captiva Island than Sanibel, it’s a little odd but whatever. It’s nicer-looking here anyway.

All of you look at the huge mansion in front of you, and by _huge_ I mean it’s pretty _ginormous_. And coming from someone(that someone being you) that’s from Texas, surrounded by rich, white, and don’t forget; _devoted_ _christians_ that own million-dollar mansions, is saying a lot.

It’s a bit overwhelming but fuck it, you get to live in luxury for a month or two.

Jade taps your shoulder rapidly, jumping up and down. 

“Dave! Dave! Isn’t this awesome!! I get to live in a million dollar mansion!” she shakes in excitement as she hops at every word.

Goddamn is she energetic. 

You mutter doubtly, “I wouldn’t say million...” 

“H-holy shit..”

Karkat drops his luggage and stares at the mansion towering over him, well, not just him. _All_ _of_ _you_.

You bite your lip back to keep yourself from laughing at his expression, and it’s kind of cute. His jaw is dropped in absolute shock, it’s fucking priceless.

“Yo Kat, is that _million_ dollar mansion too much for you? You can always tap out now.” 

His cute expression falls, (aw) and he goes back to his usual scowl.

“ _No_. I just.. didn’t expect it to be that _big._ ”

“Well, wouldn’t you know?” you joke.

He turns to you with a puzzled expression, until he realizes what you meant. “Wait-,” he’s about to speak until a deep loud horn was blown.

Fucking great. The weird girl again.

Aranea walks in front of the house and her blue lips turn to a big teasing grin.

“Hello contestants! As you can see, this is the house you’ll all be staying in. You have an assigned dorm onto your entry page. As I’ve said we’ll be airing tomorrow, so get a good night sleep players!”

With that, she walks away as everyone takes a look at their room number. You all take your time entering the white, _incredibly_ - _way_ - _too_ clean mansion and explore.

Although before you explore, you decide to find your dorm first to put your things down.

You open the door to your room, and to your surprise it’s unlocked.

...The fuck?

You find Karkat Vantas in your room, glaring at you with so much anger that his head will probably _explode_ with how red it is.

He practically _growls_ at you with a menacing voice.

“ _You_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> subscribe, comment kudos and bookmark! im open to cric
> 
> ...also ive never watched big brother so... LMFAO (this is just my interpretation of a reality tv show)


	2. Episode 1: Palace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Season 1, Episode 1: Palace  
> The introduction of Sanibel Island is coming! 12 Contestants are walking down the run-way to answer an inspiring question. After that, it’s time for our guests to party!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Palace - The Internet Ft. Tyler, The Creator & Steve Lacy
> 
> HEY! this chapter will be just a TAD long. the plot starts by chapter 4. please be patient yall HAHAJSNSN.  
> plz enjoy!

The cold ocean breeze washes over your body like a goddamn snow-storm, you pull the warm covers closer to yourself. It’s cold as shit. 

Hold on, where are you?

Oh, right. Your on a reality T.V show. Pretty sure they haven’t started airing yet because the timing isn’t _exactly_ convenient.

You slide your shades on before you get up and shiver as the cold air creeps down your thigh. Living by the ocean is nice and all but it’s like a damn iceberg in here. 

You notice that your loud roomate has left before you, it’s about quarter to eleven in the morning so that’s probably the earliest you’ll wake up to.

Your eyes wander to Karkat’s side of the room.

His bed is made, everything is organized as it should be. Compared to your side, it’s a fucking mess and you just got here so that says a lot about yourself. Your not exactly sure that Karkat is fond of you as a roommate, maybe even a friend. 

Last night he was downright furious about having you as a roomate. He told you to get out _his_ room. You told him dumbly that you both have to share a room, he accused you of lying and went to go talk to the ‘authorities’.(meaning Aranea)

In the end, Aranea took a lot of her time to explain to him that I’m his roommate and it is what it is.

Did he almost slap her in the face? Yeah. But did he do it? No. He’d get eliminated, dumbass.

You slap on some comfy sweats and a graphic t-shirt, no need to look fancy it’s like Antartica out here. Before you leave, you see a mini remote by your night-stand. A sticky-note is placed right by it saying ‘take me’ so you stuff it in your pocket.

Weird.

After that you stumble into the kitchen, which is like the size of a damn _restaurant_. The smell of bacon and scrambeled eggs in the air makes your stomach growl. Everyone has a full plate and chatting away. 

Once you grab a plate of food you look around for where to sit. This gives you severe high-school flashbacks, a kid in the cafeteria trying to figure out where to sit but eats in the bathroom.

That’s you. You’re the kid.

Anyways, you notice Jade waving at you, along with John and Rose. Karkat is there too, but sitting right by a fucking model. She’s tall and slender, her hair is curly and styled. Almost like a pixie-cut like Rose once had.. ( _but_ _she can pull it off)._

She looks like someone Rose would definitely go for.

When she opens her mouth to speak, you notice that her canines are incredibly vampire-like and sharp.

Yep. Totally someone Rose would fall for. 

_Andddd_ your right, your sister is looking at her the whole time. Just as you expected. You _knew_ those twilight books weren’t just a phase. You note to make fun of her for it later.

You sit next to John and give him a fist-bump. Karkat glances at you, looking away and continues conversing with the ‘ _model_.’ 

“Sooo, did everyone sleep well last night?” Jade finally speaks after she swallows her bacon.

John answers, “I slept... okay. My roommate is kind of annoying so I couldn’t really sleep well.” he turns his gaze to a lanky, skinny boy in 3D glasses across the room.

You take a bite out of your breakfast sandwich.

“Oh really? Me too. A little _someone_ wouldn’t stop complaining last night.”

You smirk as you pronouce ‘someone’ teasingly, looking at Karkat which turns to glare at you. 

John notices the tension between you two and puts his fork down. “Hold on, Karkat is your roommate?! Oh God...what did he do to you?” 

“Do to me?” you raise a brow at his question.

“Yeah! Did he like.. beat you up?”

“Beat me up?” you ask incredulously.

Karkat interrupts the conversation with a slam on the table, “Of course the fuck I did!”

You chew the last bit of your bacon and give him an amusing look. 

“Really? What did you do, Karkat?” you playfully test him.

“I beat your ass, of course.” 

“No, but what did you do?”

Karkat sits back, huffing and tries to come up with a lie. John is dumb enough to believe Karkat, but not for long until Rose joins in to state the obvious.

“Obviously Karkat didn’t ‘ _beat_ ’ up Dave. If he had, he would’ve been eliminated.” 

John’s eyes widen in surprise, mouthing an ‘o’ as everyone turns to Karkat, hiding their chuckles at his attempted lie. He blushes in embarrassment as he gets up to throw his plate away.

“Whatever. All of you are dumbasses to believe that anyway.” 

The conversation ends by Aranea’s voice slipping through the speakers.

Great.

“Hello fellow contestants! As you can see we haven’t started filming yet, but instead have given you all a refreshing breakfast. Please meet me in the common room when you are finished!!” 

Doing as told, everyone gets up from their seats and leaves to the common room. You all find Aranea with 12 people by her side. Each of you stand there awkwardly until she tells you further instructions.

“I have assigned you with a person to help fix you up for the runway; introduction of the show!” Aranea gestures her hand to the 12 people, “As you know, there was probably a mini remote by your night-stand!” 

“Please take a look at your remote to see your persons name! They’ll lead the way from there on. See you at the runway!”

You don’t really know what the fuck your doing, but you look at your remote that says ‘KANAYA’, then back up to see that model-looking chick from earlier. 

You raise a brow at her in confusion, “Aren’t you a contestant??” 

She sighs as she puts her remote in her purse.

Classy.

“Yes, but I am also a seamtress and makeup designer, hair designer... etc etc. Anywho, I am Kanaya Maryam. I’ll be helping you dress up for tonight.” She says the last bit braggingly, but it’s not bothersome. 

Kanaya is also just a _bit_ taller than you upclose. 

I see, _competition_.

Of course there’s no reason for her to lie, and she does fit the part. Also your remote literally says ‘KANAYA’ so you believe her.

“Dave Strider, and why do you need to help out? Doesn’t this show have enough people for that?” 

“I don’t know, actually. They had Karkat help out aswell.” She frowns.

Your eyes widen at that, “ _Karkat_?? Is this show on a budget??”

Kanaya laughs at your joke, and she downright sounds like a Victorian hostess.

Rose is definitely into her. No fucking doubt.

Anyway, _Kanaya_ tells you to follow her to the runway to ‘get ready’.

-

Kanaya guides you a ‘hidden’ house, it’s connected to the mansion so that must be the _runway_ they were talking about. Inside is probably all the seperate rooms they have to dress us up in or some shit.

You follow Kanaya into a seperate room (as you expected) and get started on picking a suit. She easily picks out a dark red button up along with a black tye and trousers. You put it on as she begins to assemble the.. makeup.

Oh, God.

“..Do I need to put that on my face?” you bite your lip.

She sets the eyebrow pencil on the table, creasing her brows. “Wh-... Yes. Is that a problem?” 

What if.. _he_ see’s?

“No.” you answer sharply. Fuck him. And fuck what _he_ thinks.

She smiles with her bold black lips which reminds you a lot of Rose, who is still in her goth phase.

“Good!” 

You sit on the stool hesitantly, trying to cool yourself down.

You remember when your dad would get upset if he ever caught you in the makeup section of the store, looking at the variety of eyeshadow. By the time you got home, he pulled out his belt and it _wasn’t_ pretty.

He was especially pissed off when he found you watching Rupaul’s Dragrace, you thought he wasn’t home at the time but jokes on you. He grabbed you by the hair and _dragged_ you out of the room. You don’t want to explain what happened after that. 

It’s just _makeup_ Dave. 

Kanaya is frowning at you as she repeatedly asks the same question. Shit, you zoned out.

“Shit, Sorry. What did you say?”

“It’s okay, do you mind if I take off your sunglasses?”

You stiffen. Ugh.

Get over it, _get_ _over_ _it, get over it, Dave_.

“Yeah.”

She doesn’t notice you freeze at the question, so she takes off your glasses.

She tries to not stare a lot but, she does. You know she doesn’t mean to be rude(as in staring) but it can’t be helped, _because_ shit, you would too.

Luckily she doesn’t comment anything negative on your eye color or anything, which has happened _before_. She’s also not really surprise, which was expected since Rose has literally lavender eyes out in the open. But it’s still unusual.

“Well, the good thing is that there isn’t much to do. Your skin is relatively clear and I wouldn’t want to hide your freckles...” she grabs an eyebrows pencil and starts to fill them in. 

You snort, “Hell yeah, my skin is clear. I’m gonna post a skincare thread on twitter now, Kan. Thanks for the self-esteem boost.”

She doesn’t really get your humour but smiles anyway, focusing on your eyebrows.

It doesn’t take long for her to finish, all she does is contour your face and add some highlighter or whatever the hell she tells you. She looks at your hair and glances at the straightener.

Fuck. Anything but that dangerous weapon. 

“Don’t straighten my hair, please. It was a bitch to get my hair in healthy curls again.” you beg.

She chuckles, “Of course I wouldn’t do that to you, I have curly hair too.”

You nod as she takes a step back to look at you. Kanaya smiles with her hand on her hips.

“All set!”

“Dope. I wanna see your godly creation AKA me. Where’s the damn body mirror?” 

Kanaya guides you to the backroom which is literally just built for a bigass mirror. The amount of extraness in this damn show, I tell you.

You look good, and by that you actually look _really_ good. Kanaya did a really nice job, the makeup isn’t that much of a difference but enhance your jawline and cheekbones. The outfit she picked matches perfectly with your eyes.

“Damn, Kanaya. I look like a brand new person. Da Vinci has nothing on you, I swear on it. Don’t even try to cut your own ear off, you got it girl.” 

“Isn’t that someone else, that cut their ear off?” she corrects. 

“Same person.” you shrug.

Her expression is priceless because she can’t really tell if your joking or not. She let’s it go, crossing her arms pridefully.

“But, why yes of course, my work is always done perfectly. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready aswell.”

Kanaya walks out of the backroom as you fiddle with your shades debating if you should put them on or not. You decide not to because Kanaya put all her hard work onto your makeup, it’d be a waste to cover it all up with shades. I guess you’ll be showing the whole world your ‘ _creepy_ ’ as fuck eyes. Fuck these emotion-showing fuckers.

An hour passes and the T.V above you turns on, showing the introduction of ‘Sanibel Island’. It’s usually a series of Aranea talking about how happy she is to start the show until she introduces the first two contestants. 

“...And welcome... Rose and Jade!”

The camera switches to Rose, walking down the runway with a lavender gown that matches her eyes and eyeshadow perfectly. Thankfully they didn’t straighten her hair either, making you wonder that she probably told them the same thing you did.

Behind her is Jade, in a bright green glittery mermaid dress that contrasts nicely with her brown skin. Her hair is tucked back into a long princess braid with some curls slipping through. 

The camera zooms in on Roses face, she turns her dark purple lips into a fake smile for only the world to see. Jade is doing the same, but her smile isn’t as exaggeratted..

She’s just always smiling. 

Aranea whistles through her mic and steps back, looking at them from head-to-toe. “Well, well, well. Don’t you ladies look fine tonight. Let’s start with this gorgeous maiden right here. Tell me, what’s your name beautiful?”

“I’m Rose Lalonde.” she says graciously.

Aranea nods, “Oooh! So elegant, how about you princess?” she turns to Jade. 

“I’m Jade Harley!” she practically squeals her name is exictement, jumping slightly and waving at the camera. 

The host forces a fake laugh(you think, you can’t really tell honestly) and lands her hands on her hips. “Awesome! You seem a little excited tonight. That’s great, now I have a question for you two before you walk into the house...” she leans in on the two girls, and her voice sends a shiver down your spine. For some reason this whole thing is giving you a really bad vibe. 

“What do you believe will make you win the $100 billion dollars?” 

It seems like a pretty easy question if you’d ever see it on a quiz made by buzzfeed, but saying it out loud for millions of people to see? Now thats nerve-racking. You wonder how Rose will respond, how would she avoid sounding too conceited or full of it? And Jade? 

Jade bites her lips nervously, unable to think of an answer until Rose smiles dumbly at the host. Of course she can play through mind games. 

“Why, I believe we’ll have to wait and see. I hope I can prove myself to the world, that I can win the money for my own good.” 

The crowd around her goes silent. Even Jade. The host bites her lip, obviously not expecting that answer. She adjust her glasses and instantly covers her doubtful face with a smile(weird). 

“Couldn’t have said it any better! Thank you Rose Lalonde, you heard it here folks!” she then turns to Jade, “Now, how about you, Jade?”

“..I-I’m not really sure.. but like Rose said I will try my best! Hopefully my positive attitude will reach people for the good to help me win the $100 billion.” she smiles, obviously feeling inspired by Roses speech.

You can tell that Aranea is trying so hard not to roll her eyes. Her fake smile is still plastered all over her cocky face.

“Lovely! Ladies you may walk down the runway, we’ll see you soon!”

After they walk out, John and a guy named Sollux walks in. The guy John was complaining about earlier, his shades are a bit odd but you can’t judge. You literally wear shades inside.

John says something nearly the same as Jade but something about pranks, Sollux says something remarkably different like ‘I dont wannna be here but I have to’.

The next people are two girls named Terezi and Vriska, they both goof off on stage the whole time making the crowd laugh. You also are soon to find out that Terezi is blind and can see things by smelling or licking them... which is fucking weird but hey, don’t pick on the blind chick. It explains a lot about her walking down the runway with a cane though.

Vriska says something about being way too cool to be on this show and that she’s just in it for the drama. Terezi answers with a joke and licks the host’s cheek, in which the crowd responds with laughter again.

Next is Gamzee and Kanaya, she looks mildly annoyed about being paired up with him. Seeing as he’s a fucking giant compared to the both of you. Despite Kanaya having her time shortened, she looks extremely put-together. Her eyeshadow and face make-up isn’t as extreme as the other girls. 

Gamzee gives you a strange vibe also, it’s just the way how his hair is extremely taggeled and long. He has clown makeup on and it’s a bit odd but when he speaks it’s an acception for his looks. He says something about how God will give him the strength to win or some shit, I don’t fucking know.

Kanaya says something remotely the same as Rose, and walks off into the mansion. You’re about to see Aradia’s and Feferi’s introduction until a producer comes barging through your door, making you flinch instinctively.

“..Hey, man,” you breathlessly say, the producer simply nods your way. Karkat walks in behind him, face content until his eyes interlock with yours.

He glares. Awesome.

You smile shyly, “Hi Kat.”

His glare intesifies. Perfect.

“Don’t mention anything about being in the mansion before, we organized your rooms to how they once were before you came and your luggage.” the producer interrupts, leaving the door with a slam.

You puff your cheeks in annoyance, “Jeez. So demanding.”

Karkat is still by the closed door, arms crossed as he sighs dramatically. You frown.

“Come on, it’s not that bad being partnered up with me. It’ll be fun!” 

He rolls his eyes, finally giving in and sits on the stool next to you. You notice that he’s wearing skin-tight flared pants. 

And that he has _really, really_ nice legs.

Karkat grunts, “I guess so, I’ll just have to live with the fact that I’ll be having an _annoying_ douchebag peering by my side the whole fucking time.” 

You smirk at his comment. “Yeah, your stuck with me buddy. Sorry, but we’re skipping through all the friendship phases right now. We are best fucking friends right now.” 

He groans and runs his hands through his unruly curly hair. “God, your humour fucking sucks.”

“Yeah? Well your hair is gonna get ruined if you keep messing with it like that.” 

He squints at you through his.. is that fake eyelashes he’s wearing? Damn. This show really went all out.

“You can’t tell me that having your hair-sprayed feels like shit! They’re going to ruin my hair! All of this for a fucking show. Unbelievable.” he sits back into the stool with a huff.

You lean your arm over the stool, “Well, look on the brightside dude; they didn’t straighten your hair. Now that would’ve damaged it pretty bad.” you cross your arms truthfully. 

His face lights up at that.. and it really brightens up the soft round features on his face.

“You’re right about that one, Strider.” 

You don’t really know what to say to that so you turn to the T.V., Karkat seems to do the same. Moments of silence passes by as Aradia and Feferi head out into the mansion. 

Karkat breaks the silence, “Dave?”

“Hm?” you hum, Karkat is about to tell you something until the producers open the door recklessly. Signaling for you to follow them. Karkat seems to have forgotten about what he was going to say, probably nervousness washing over him.

The same is happening to you, your way too nervous to think about anything right now. You go in front of Karkat first since the producers ordered you too, as it’s from tallest to shortest. You glance at Karkat before you walk off into the runway, he’s way too nervous to glare at you right now.

You take a deep breathe and walk down the runway. Hearing the loud cheering of the crowd and Araneas voice makes you shiver. You plaster your signature Strider smirk on your face as Karkat stumbles next to you.

Not sure if it’s the amount of blush on his face from the makeup or if that’s just him, but he’s blushing madly. Clearly embarrassed by the amount of attention he’s getting from the crowd. 

Aranea’s playful grin settles onto her golden face as she looks at the both of you, “Well, our lovely last contestants sure look fine this evening! Please, what are your names?” 

“I’m Dave Strider,”

Karkat bites his lip anxiously, and something in your stomach flutters as you look at his glossy lips.

He stutters, “I’m K-Karkat. Karkat Vantas.” 

“Awww, awfully shy I see.” Aranea coos, “Well your in luck everyone! Get a load of those legs, jeez Karkat,” Aranea says teasingly, but if your close enough you can hear the hidden judgemental and mocking tone as she leans back.

Fucking bitch.

Karkat notices her tone and looks down on himself. He crosses his arms, desperately trying to cover himself. He obviously feels self-concious as his blush deepens. You frown, feeling really bad for him. That’s really not cool.

Aranea turns to you, using the same teasing voice that’s set for the viewers to only hear, but her hidden tone is the same one she used on Karkat.

“And those eyes! Those are to _die_ for Dave. What a gift!”

It takes everything in your willpower to not roll your eyes. Bitch.

Aranea waits for a reaction as if she didn’t just insult you both. What’s even more irritating is that she _knows_ that you guys figured her out.

_Fucking_ bitch.

She heaves an exaggerated sigh, pretending to be hurt.

“Man, tough crew these guys are. Anyway, onto the question for you two.” her wicked smile deepens with every word.

“What do you believe will make you win the $100 billion dollars?” 

If you weren’t the first person to answer this question you’d think your mind would go blank, but given Roses prized answer it’s a lot easier to give an insightful answer. 

You think about the question for a while and lick your lips. You wish you had more time to put thought into it, because Dirk or maybe even Roxy is watching right now.

Who’re you kidding? Of course they are.

The best thing to do is to let your brother know that your doing this for him.

_For him to be happy._

You shake off the pressure and lips curve into confident smile, “I hope that my little bro watching this will encourage me to win the $100 billion, so I guess we’ll just.. have to see.” 

The host swoons. “Awww, what a heartwarming speech. Thank you, Dave. How about you Karkat?”

Karkat jumps a bit in surprise, as if he was spacing out. “Huh? Oh... um..” 

Honestly, it’s a bit weird to see Karkat so quiet and nervous, shy even. He’s not shouty or sassy at all.. he’s the complete opposite. It’s kind of cute to be honest, but also keep in mind that Aranea _did_ just insult him, and also theres a _shitload_ of people so you can see why he’s out of it. 

Although shy doesn’t fit Karkat, you like the other Karkat better. 

He breathes in and exhales, letting go of all his worries. 

“I believe that my family is watching and rooting for me, so it’ll encourage me to win the $100 billion.” 

“Ooh! You guys are so similar... we’ll see how that turns out,” you and Karkat both look at eachother curiously “we’ll see you in a few!” 

You walk out of there as fast as you possible can, and Karkat does the same but not too fast so that he doesn’t surpass you.

Once you both exit the runway, he bolts to the bathroom. You sigh and run a hand through your curly hair. 

Now for a damn party. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos, bookmark, comment and subcribe! please do so, ill appreciate it and it motivates me:). im also open to cric!


	3. Episode 2: Drowsy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Season 1, Episode 2: Drowsy  
> Welcome to episode 2 of Sanibel Island! Today we will be showing the contestants the mansion and it’s perks! They will also be participating in a treasure hunt, and a free day at the beach. What will settle in for today?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drowsy // Banes World 
> 
> hello,, so this chapter is a bit juicy and really fucking long so i hope u got some popcorn with you. thisll probably be up in a couple days because i am working really hard on this. i know this story only has like 5 kudos and little hits but LMFOAKSHD umm... imma still continue it. anyway yeah enjoy!

You and Karkart arrive in the living room of the mansion. Well, you think it is because they have approximately 5 living rooms in total. Karkat bolts for the bathroom, and shit, you don’t blame him.

You are about to shit yourself right now.

This show is really rubbing you off the wrong way. And maybe it’s because you can’t even tell if Aranea is even capable of real human emotions, or let alone if she is even human. Her personality seems so fake; the producers are like robots.

Even Spades, the _fucking_ creator of the show, is probably incapable of producing real human emotions. Also, the fact that he has an eye-patch makes it even worse. 

It kinds of pisses you off though, especially when Aranea commented on your eyes. For the viewers watching it would’ve seemed like a harmless compliment, but in reality her voice was judgemental as fuck. Especially her comment on Karkat’s legs, now that’s a good example.

But, whatever. It’s for television. It is what it is. 

Atleast you’re not alone, Aranea _did_ pick on the other contestants. You could see the way their smile faltered a bit when she ‘complimented’ their outfit or body. 

Fucking bitch.

Yeah but, you’re not so sure that this whole television shit is your vibe right now. I feel like everyone has to hide their true selves on screen, which is _all_ the time and no fun. It’s shit to hang around fake people. It’s like you never get to see the real them and it’s boring as fuck.

I mean, I’m really one to talk but it’s _nothing_ compared to this.

A good example is how Karkat acted on the runway. Sure, if you weren’t broadcasted to the whole world maybe you wouldn’t be as nervous but he was about to shit is pants.

Well he is right now, probably. 

Anyway your point is that.. is Karkat never going to reveal his true self for the whole world to see? Will this cause Jade to not be as overwhelmingly cheery? Or how about John with his obsession with Nick Cage, will he be afraid of the feedback from the viewers?

Nah. He would actually be the complete opposite.

Maybe you’re overthinking everything too much, but Trisha Paytas is an ultimate source. She did say that everyone was holding a fake mask all the time on Big Brother. Which is unhealthy.

God, what an icon.

Well off from your banter of complaining, everyone is either sitting on the luxurious couches or standing and chatting up a storm. Most of them have doubtful faces and scanning the room nervously. They must be feeling overwhelmed, obviously. You wonder if they’ve overthinked this situation entirely like you did.

Probably, but no one would admit it or bring it up. 

You sit next to Jade who is tapping her foot nervously. Rose has her hands tucked into her lap, talking to her reassuringly. No one says much, just waiting for the next list of instructions. 

There’s not much to say while the cameras are rolling anyway.

The speakers make a loud, wavering noise until you recognize Aranea’s voice catching in the speakers. Karkat returns from the bathroom, eyes red and puffy. 

You feel a stinge of worry hit your chest.

“Hello? Hi! Contestants, please take a look at your remotes and find your dorm room number! That’s where you’ll be staying tonight.” 

Of course you all know that already, but all pretend to look at your remotes and go to your dorms. Luckily the cameras don’t roll in your room(which is surprising, they have some humanity left) so you unlock the door, heading inside.

Karkat comes in after you. Not complaining at all about you being is roommate, which is concerning. 

Silence fills the room as you both dress into casual clothes for the party tonight. Your not really in the mood to party and clearly Karkat isn’t either, but, your forced to.

Your first to finish, waiting until the remote notifies that your ride is here.

Karkat walks out of his bathroom in an oversized sweater and black pants. You cringe internally at the choice of his outfit.

“Dude, your going to be sweating in that.” you comment. 

Karkat rolls his eyes. “No shit, that’s why I have a tanktop under this.”

You laugh lightly, “That’s not any better.”

He crosses his arms in irritation, curling his fists. “Strider if your going to keep critiquing me I will perpetually vomit down your throat until you choke.”

“Nope. Not today, sir.” You get up without hesitation and head out the door.

You swear you hear the fucker chuckle under his breath, asshole.

He soon follows after you, as he locks the door behind you both. The remote vibrates in your pocket which notifies that your ride is here.

The carride to the bar is silent, Karkat is surprisingly quiet the whole time. It’s a bit calming to say the least; he’s looking out the window wandering off into space. He probably didn’t take that leg comment from earlier well.

You feel that stinge of worry in your chest again. 

Once you arrive everyone is waiting for you two, Jade is back to her excited self(as expected since the cameras aren’t rolling) and Rose is by her side along with Kanaya. You and Karkat exit the car and _try_ to get to them, but the crowd of people are in the way.

Jade grabs your hand through the crowd, cutting you through a shitload of pissed off people. Karkat is dragged in aswell as the both of you say sorry to the people glaring at you. 

You finally make it to Jade and the others in line. Karkat stomps up to her and pokes her chest angerily.

“Jade Harley, if you ever push me through a crowd of sweaty and horny middle-aged adults again I will shred your whole body into a million pieces with my own two hands.” he waves his hands to the crowd of irritated people and gives her a death glare.

Rose chuckles lightly by Jades side and mutters an ‘oh my’ to Kanaya. 

Jade laughs and lands her hand on his shoulder, “Oh Karkat, I’m so glad your back to your usual self again. I thought that runway took a real toll on you..” his expression instantly falls, good going Harley.

“..Aranea was a real bitch. And for you too, Dave. Sorry about that.. I didn’t expect her to be _that_ mean.”

She bites her lip nervously, scanning you both for a response. Karkat is staring into space like he’s reliving the whole situation again.

You sigh, “It’s alright Harley, but it is what it is. On the brightside though, Kanaya made me look damn good.” You turn your gaze to Kanaya and she smiles. 

“You’re very welcome Dave. I’m sure Karkat did a very good job with Rose also.” 

You raise a brow at both of them in confusion and turn to Karkat. 

“Wait what?? I thought you were joking? So you’re telling _me_ that Karkat did that _impossible_ eyeshadow look on Rose?” 

Rose nods, “Yes Dave. He did do that. He did everything.”

“Wait, so he managed to fix ugly??” 

Rose sighs and rubs her temples, “Still care to make those comments like a child? Honestly, Dave, that’s quite embarrassing.” 

“Well I’m your brother so someone _has_ do it.” you shrug.

She huffs and folds her arms carelessly as you all move up the line; a little closer to the entrance now.

“Well, it can’t be helped. Although I’m quiet surprised you only seemed to comment on my appearance. I thought you were shocked about something else..” she turns to Karkat who smirks at you.

“If Dave were to judge anything about boys doing makeup I would’ve drop-kicked his ass on the spot, _thank_ you very fucking much.” he looks you up and down challengingly.

You frown, “Do all of you think I’m that much of an asshole? Come on, I’m not that much of a douche to say something like that. Right?”

Kanaya and Karkat look at you blankly, not retorting at all. Your frown deepens as you turn to Jade who’s awkwardly biting her lip, deciding wether she should tell the truth or not. 

“Right, Jade?”

Jade is always nice, surely she’ll defend you somehow.

“...Uh, well,” she glances at Karkat who is giving her a look that screams ‘bitch you know it’s true’.

“Seriously? Man y’all are judgemental as fuck.”

The line finally moves to the entrance and you all push your way inside. The club is dark and _hot_ , with lights flashing everywhere. A bunch of people are on the dancefloor, bar, and just in general; fucking _everywhere_.

You turn to Karkat and cringe again at the choice of clothes. He catches you cringing and returns with a roll of his eyes.

But he knows you’re right.

The first thing you do is take off your jacket because its hot as shit in here. Rose is already sprinting to the bar for a shot. You really hope she’s got her alcoholic shit in check.. because she’s gonna go batshit crazy on the shots. 

You probably shouldn’t even let her drink. But, you let her make her own decisions. It’s not like she’ll listen to you anyway. 

Jade follows Rose and orders more rounds of shots than her, which fucking surprises you because Jade does _not_ look like the drinking type. They both start their round of shots as the rest of the group orders a beer or something expensive. 

Your about to join the rest of them until you feel someone tug the sleeve of your shirt. You look down and find Karkat looking at you with half-lidded eyes, as if he’s about to pass out. 

“Dude, are you good?” you say loudly over the music and crowd of people around you. 

He doesn’t scowl or glare at you at all, it’s like he didn’t hear you. His face is sweaty; you can feel his heart beating so fast that you can practically _feel_ it. His heart beat slows down a bit then stops, he collapse onto your shoulder like a ragdoll. Holy shit. 

He’s fainting. 

“Oh shit.” you blurt out and grab ahold of his body, carrying him through the crowd. You finally make it out of the mob of people and end up at the bar. You set him on the stool as he finally wakes up, gasping for air like he’s been drowning.

He wipes sweat away from his brow with the sleeve of his sweater, a confused look on his face like he doesn’t know where he is. You sit on the stool next to him.

He finally notices you, jumping in both surprise and confusion. 

“Hey. You fainted.” 

He raises a brow and looks at his surroundings, then back at you. “What? The fuck? When did that happen?” 

“Just a minute ago, _Wendy_ _Williams_. You should really take your sweater off though, I think that’s what made you faint. It’s hot as shit in here.” 

He begins to retort but stops himself as thinks about what you said. He huffs and finally takes off his sweater revealing a thin black tanktop. 

No lie, his chest and arms compliment his legs really well. 

He wraps his sweater around his waist as he hops off the stool and thank _god_ he doesn’t notice you stare at him.

You smirk, “See? I was right all along.”

He squints at you and starts to walk to the others. You laugh and call out his name, “Karkat! You forgot to say thank you!” he gives you a sarcastic blow-kiss and flips you off. 

You and Karkat seperate for the rest of the night, making your way to the opposite side of the bar and decide to socialize with the other contestants. 

You look around the room, and find Aradia with Feferi sitting at the end of the bar. Behind Aradia is that guy with the weird 3-D glasses, Sollux.

Aradia and Feferi find your gaze, Feferi waves her hand for you to come over.

You walk up to the both of them and sit on the stool next to Feferi. 

Aradia smiles and shakes your hand, “You must be Dave! I’m Aradia, this is Sollux and Feferi.”

Sollux grunts a ‘sup’ and Feferi gives you a friendly wave. 

“Yep. The one and only.” you smile back at her.

Feferi chuckles and Aradia does the same, Sollux groans at your comment and takes a sip his beer.

“Well, Dave, I loved you and Karkat’s performance! How long have you guys been together?” Aradia folds her hands together attentively, resting her chin on her knuckles. 

Well shit. Everyone apparently thinks you and Karkat are dating.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Aradia me and Karkat aren’t together at all.” you correct her quickly.

She blushes in embarrassment and Sollux snorts, bursting into a fit of laughter. Feferi mumbles a nervous ‘ooo’ and goes back to sipping her drink.

Aradia covers her mouth as she speaks, in a muffled voice. “Oh crap! I’m so sorry! I just assumed you guys were together because, well, you know you _guys_ are so—“

“It’s fine,” you stop her before she embarrasses herself any further. You can’t tell if it just really hot in here or if your face is just _burning_.

Aradia smiles apologetically, “I’m sorry. Do you want to order a drink? It’s all on me.” she reaches into her purse and grabs her wallet.

Welp, better take advantage of the situation because drinks are fucking expensive.

“Hell yeah, you owe me one Megido. Get me a Sex on The Beach.” 

She raises a brow at the choice of drink but doesn’t comment, she tells the bartender your order. After a couple of quick seconds the bartender hands you your drink. 

Feferi speaks to finally cut the tension.

“Well anyway, I loved your speech Dave! About your little brother. I’m sure he’s really proud of you for doing this for him!”

You giver her a small smile, “Thanks, Fef. I’m sure he is.” 

Aradia is about to say something until ‘Parition’ by Beyoncé comes on. Her and Feferi gasp, hastily get up from their seats and race to the dancefloor. Aradia drags Sollux along with her, he mouths a fast ‘help me’ before he’s off and running.

Of course, Beyoncé. Never fails to get people up and dancing. One of her many accomplishments.

You decide to walk to the other side of the bar to find Rose and John.

And to your surprise, they are both challenging eachother to a drink off. John. Of all people, John. He is challenging Rose.

Poor guy. He’s gonna fucking pass out.

People like Terezi, Jade or Vriska are circled around the two of them, chanting John’s name. Random people are chanting Roses name, who gulps down her drink first.

You shove your way through the crowd of people and find John finishing his last drink. 

He collapses onto the table, passing out and everyone cheers for Rose. She raises her drink in air, yelling god knows what. You grab her wrist and pull her down, snatching the bottle away from her.

The crowd instantly boos, Vriska cusses you out but you can’t quite muster what she’s saying. Whatever. Rose is your only priority right now.

“Rose, how many drinks have you had?” 

She looks at you lazily then laughs bubbly, grabbing the bottle from you.

She ignores you and leans up to the bartender, tapping his shoulder while shoving the bottle into his chest. 

“Ay! Bartender gimmie shum moreee~”

You reach over the table and grab the bottle from her, “Rose! Can you tell me how much you’ve had? You know you can’t have a lot or else you’ll relapse hard.” 

Rose gives you a dumb stare as you force her to look at you. She sits back onto the stool and bites back her lip, thinking.

“Mmmm... I had abouts ss—uh, twenty-seven?”

”Twenty-seven shots?”

“Yesh.” she hiccups.

“ _Jesus_ ,”

You heave an exasperated sigh and yank her arm through the crowd, who is very much booing you right now for ‘ruining the show’. Fuck that, you feel like a bad brother. You shouldn’t have let her drink in the first place.

She’s had a problem with drinking ever since she was _thirteen_. _Fucking_ _thirteen_. Roxy had the same problem, they would both sneak into mom’s closet and steal the stashes of sake. 

You find your way to the girls bathroom and see Kanaya waiting outside.

Thank god. Someone who’s not drunk as shit. Thankfully you can focus to get Rose to stop drinking when your some-what sober.

Kanaya looks at the state of Rose and gasps, curving her black lips into a sincere frown.

“Can you please take care of her in the bathroom? Don’t let her drink anymore.” 

Without hesitation, Kanaya nods and takes her away from you. Rose mumbles something about ‘pretty girls’ and how she hates you ‘ruining the mood’. She’ll thank you for it later.

You walk out of the hallway, about to leave until you find Karkat making out with.. Gamzee? Or you think, it’s actually Gamzee making out with _him_. You can’t really describe what’s even going on anymore, let alone if that’s even Karkat. The plenty glasses of Sex On The Beach from earlier is finally kicking in. 

You decide to walk back to where you sat with Aradia, everyone is now doing a round of shots at Roses side of the bar. But body shots now.

Fucking gross. You forgot how much you hate clubs. 

Listen, your a DJ so you _have_ to love clubs but shit like this is way too much for you. It reminds you a lot of your past, which is something you don’t want to get into right now.

You finally sit down and relax for a minute. Two hours in this bitch and it’s already draining as _fuck_. 

A series of Beyoncé’s songs end and you find Aradia with Feferi and Sollux again, all of them out of breath and ready to leave. You instantly get up to join them. Fuck you want to leave.

They nod your way and take note the situation, ordering an uber for the four of you.

The uber finally arrives, all of you clumsingly get inside as the driver just watches you all with amusement.

The carride is quiet the whole time, it’s fucking pouring outside like Posedion just had a fucking uproar. 

Moments of silence pass by until you speak.

“Is it lame that we’re leaving first?”

“No. Fuck that.” Sollux answers.

You all arrive at the mansion, Sollux is struggling to keep Aradia on her feet so you help him out. Feferi opens the door for the both of you and closes it once your inside. 

You both put Aradia on her bed, neither Feferi or Sollux bother to put her in different clothes because it’d be invading her privacy. You shut the door and decide to hangout in the kitchen for a while before you feel tired. 

All of you talk about random shit and raid the fridge, not even bothering to clean up after yourselves. Eventually some of the other contestants make it back home and join you. Kanaya goes to her dorm in which she shares with Rose.

An hour passes and everyone goes back to their dorms, Feferi is the first to go to bed and joins Aradia. 

Sollux does the same and goes to his dorm, muttering a drunken ‘goodnight’. You say the same, putting the snacks away and walk into your bedroom.

You don’t find Karkat in your bedroom at all, thinking that he is probably in the bathroom or something since the lights are on. You fall onto your comfy mattress, falling into deep slumber.

-

The crazy night finally ends, and you wake up with a crazy hangover. Thank god you didn’t wake up to Araneas annoying-as-fuck voice. You groan and sit up to close the blinds since it’s too fucking bright in here.

You turn to Karkat’s side of the bed and see him still sleeping. Or, you think so because his back is facing you. Your about to call his name until you feel a sharp pain in your head that makes you wince. 

Fucking hangovers. 

You take a look at your remote to see the agenda for today; the camera’s don’t roll until an hour so you have enough time to get ready. It states to wear something beachy since it’s hot outside and your activity today is something about swimming or some shit. 

You decide to take a shower since you reek of alcohol, closing the bathroom door behind you.

Once your finished you brush your teeth and slap some swimshorts on, along with a hoodie since it’s still fucking cold in the morning. 

Also, due to the fact with the scars plastered all over your body. Which is something you’re _deeply_ fucking insecure about, and hope for no one to notice. (Sometimes they don’t, or that’s just rude because it’s rude as fuck to stare.) 

You’re fine, you’re fine Dave. Nothing to be ashamed of. No one will nudge you about the damn scars because that’s just fucking rude. 

Aranea probably will though, fuck.

Whatever, you’re doing this for Dirk. He needs the money so you’re doing this for _him_. He _needs_ to be happy. 

You reach for your shades, debating if you should leave them or not. Since your swimming it’ll probably get lost, so nah.

It’s also fucking destroyed from that horrible party last night. 

You’re about to leave until you notice Karkat is still in bed. He’ll only have a couple minutes to get ready, and you know he gets up early to do makeup. 

“Hey, are you gonna come? The activity starts in like 30 minutes.” you nudge his shoulder. 

He grunts and pulls the covers closer to himself, sniffling. 

You pull your hand away, frowning.

“Karkat? Are you okay?” 

Karkat groans and curls up into a ball. “Leave me alone.” his voice nasily and a bit cracky, like he’s been crying.

Or maybe he’s just hella fucking tired.

“Okay then.” you sigh and walk out, shutting the door behind you. 

You head into the kitchen and grab yourself a bottle of water and a quick snack before going to the common room. Everyone is extremely hungover and drinking loads of water. The sight is unreal.

You walk over to Jade and John, each of them are carrying a gallon of water. If that isn’t the most extra thing you’ve seen..

“Damn. I bet you guys are really feeling it now, huh?” you smirk at their shitty appearances.

John groans, “Shove off Dave, you don’t look any better.”

“That’s cruel, man.” you frown as you lean on the couch. 

Jade ignores both of your bickering and looks around the room, “Where’s Karkat?” 

“He told me to leave him alone, I don’t think he’s coming.” you answer as you take a bite of your granola bar. 

John raises a brow at you and turns to Jade with a worried look on his face, she returns with the same expression.

“What?? But he _has_ to. It’s required.”

You shrug, “Well, not to him atleast.” 

You both chat for a while until you hear the screech of the speakers air, Aranea’s voice appearing before you.

Goddamn, you were having a good time. Now this weird bitch has to ruin everything. 

Karkat comes into the room once the speakers turn on, his arms crossed and eyes fixated onto the ground. Even with the amount of concealer to hide his red puffy eyes you can still tell he’s been crying. 

Ugh, that pain in your chest again. What the fuck?

Araneas loud voice interrupts everyones conversations, “Hello contestants! Welcome to episode 2 of Sanibel Island, is everyone feeling quite hungover today?” she jokes.

Everyone groans in response.

“Hahaha! As I thought. Well, I’ll assign the activity once I show you around the mansion first. Let me just come on out...”

Aranea comes moments later from the hallway, and damn is she fast. Maybe she’s not that far off from the control room? I’ll note that.

She tells you all to follow her around the mansion, showing you the million different rooms. There’s a gaming room, in which John tells you to play with him later when free-time rolls around. What really catches your eye is that they have a photo room and even a fucking movie theatre.

Goddamn they are rich.

They have 2 fucking kitchens, don’t get me started on the damn bathrooms. They even have an indoor pool and jacuzzi. There is so much more you can’t even keep track.

Once that’s over, Aranea tells you all to meet her outside at the nearby beach so she can assign the activity for today. 

Everyone does as she says and heads out the door. You and Karkat are the last to walk outside, without thinking, you dumbly grab his wrist to get his attention.

Karkat quickly grabs your hand and pulls it off defensively. His breath hitches when he looks up at you, and exhales in relief when he realizes it’s you.

His stare is scared and careful as he observes you, like he’s analyzing every move your going to make.

The sight of him reminds you of yourself, like whenever someone would make a sudden movement, you’d look at them the same way Karkat is looking at you. It’s usually because your hella traumatized, but you’ve learned to control it and just know that dad isn’t here; you’re _safe_ now.

But Karkat looking like this? That’s not good. He’s been freaking out ever since this morning.

You bite your lip anxiously. It doesn’t hurt to try.

“Kat are you good? You look really freaked out and like you’ve been crying..”

Probably not the right choice of words but, whatever.

He looks at you in silence for a while, tears starting to form but he bites his lip back and scowls at you.

“I’m fucking fine. Stop asking me that, Strider.” he looks at the cameras rolling as he speaks, then storms out the door before you can even reply.

Yeah, something is definitely wrong and no amount of ‘I’m fines’ are going to tell you otherwise. You’ve learned too much from that saying. Although he probably can’t say it on camera, since he kept glancing at them.

These cameras fucking suck bro. 

You follow Karkat out the door but decide not to bother him any further, he obviously isn’t going to tell you what’s wrong so the only thing for you to do is to treat him like your friend.

-

Everyone circles around Aranea, the camera mans are all surrounding you like your some kind of popular celebrity(which makes you feel damn good but also uneasy at the same time).

Karkat is on the opposite end of the circle, clearly avoiding you. 

“Alright! So today we are assigning a _treasure_ _hunt_. I’ll pair you up with another person and your remote will tell you your partner!” 

Aranea continues, “Your goal is to make it across the little island over there, to find the treasure! On the island is an old ancient castle, and what’s the treasure you say? Well..” she licks her lips and smirks, with a low voice.

“You’ll have to find out for yourself... goodluck contestants!” 

Aranea walks over to her seat to watch how this all plays out, the sociopath she is.

You turn your gaze to the remote that says ‘JOHN’ in all caps. Thank god, someone you can fuck around with.

You begin to find John, who is looking for you like an idiot. 

He finally finds you and gives you a fistsbump, Aranea shoots up from her chair to name the partners to the viewers. “Well, we have John and Dave!” 

She observes the other people who have partners, which are Rose and Kanaya(I know their both shitting their pants right now), Jade and Aradia, which is a bit odd.. Feferi and Sollux(even weirder).

Finally, Gamzee and Karkat. 

You glance at Karkat, and he doesn’t look too thrilled in the slightest at his partner. If anything, he looks terrified and that.. worries you. They both have some distance from eachother, and Gamzee is just smirking down at him; zoning off into space. 

Eugh, that guy gives you the creeps. You don’t blame Karkat. But he really looks _geniunely_ terrified, it’s as if he- 

Your train of thought is interrupted by John annoyingly tugging your arm, “Dave! Let’s go! The challenge started already dunderfuck!” John tugs your arm repeatedly until you get the message. 

“Yeah, yeah I got it _Eggface_.” you follow him down to the ocean, everyone is already swimming over the island which will take fucking _forever_. 

You groan, “This is going to take _forever_.” you pull off your hoodie and kick your flip-flops off onto the sand. 

“I know, and that’s why I have a _plan_.” John smirks at you cockily and walks over to the end of the beach. You raise a brow at him but follow him anyway.

“John, they are literally going to get there before us if we don’t go now. Your plan is shit if your going to make a little raft out of sticks like a goddamn cartoon.” you complain. 

John ignores your complaining and stops at a pool of rocks. You groan and start to head back until he taps your shoulder.

He points to a motor-boat, that’s held tightly against a rock.

Your jaw drops, you turn to him and give him the most pleasing grin.

“You _fucking_ genius.” 

John gives you a conceited smile and puffs his chest out in confidence, walking down to the boat.

“I know, I know. Now get on the fucking boat and let’s goo!”

You follow after him, hopping onto the motorboat and sit in the back while you wait for John to turn it on. He pulls the lever until it makes a struggled noise.

He pulls it again. And again.

And again.

Well, shit.

You look at Jade and Aradia, who are swimming like godspeed and _unreasonably_ close to the island.

You sigh in annoyance, “It looks like your little plan didn’t work, _Einstein_. Fuck. Look at Jade and Aradia, they’re almost there! We’re gonna lose man. This is it, whatever that little treasure chest had is gone now-“ 

John interrupts your banter with a ‘Sh!’ and opens the control panel. He fucks with the buttons and the motorboat finally turns on.

You raise your brows in surprise at the sound, crossing your arms as you look at him with the pleased smile you gave him earlier. 

“Well done Egbert, you never fail to disappoint me.” 

He places his foot over the gas pedal and shrugs, “If you wouldn’t stop _doubting_ me we’d be there sooner.” 

You move to the front and wave a hand torwards Jade and Aradia, “Just go dude! We’re gonna be the last ones there!”

With that, John stomps on the gas pedal, making the motorboat go jack-shit fast. John starts to shout at the other players as you pass by, honking the horn.

You both mock them as they swim, all of them start flipping you off and cursing you out, probably with some meaningful; hurtful roasts in there too. Damn.

You both laugh back into your seats at their reactions. You decide to get up, bend over, and scream,

“ _THIS_ _IS_ _FOR_ _YOU_ , _JAPAN!!”_

John bursts into a cry of laughter, the helicopters in the air start to record the whole thing. You can’t quite hear Aranea over the loud currents of the ocean and the motorboat but she is for sure commenting on everything you’re all doing. 

Once you both arrive, you both hop off the boat quickly to run to the ancient castle. Jade and Aradia aren’t far off from getting here, probably about five more minutes. But that’s plenty of time for you guys.

John opens the door in front of you, but stops mid-way into the entrance. You tap his shoulder and nudge him to go forward, but he ignores you. 

“Egbert?” you look in front of him and freeze.

You find Rose and Kanaya, alone, in the castle. Kanaya looks mightly surprised that you’re both here, but really that should be the opposite.

Why... the fuck..

“You _cheater_.” you blurt out. 

Rose puts her hands on her chest in a mocking way, “Why, me? Of course not. We just happened to be here before you two.”

She smirks at both your astonished silence, and puts her hands on her hips.

“Although, it’s quite amusing to see you two come here late, especially before us. I thought you’d be here a lot quicker.” 

You glare at her, not even beginning to talk back. Why the fuck is she here.

You _know_ she cheated. 

You turn to Kanaya, hoping to get answers from her. You know for sure she hates lying to people or giving them the wrong idea.. unless..

“Kanaya, tell me what Rose did.” you demand

Kanaya jumps, obviously not expecting your question and turns to Rose. Rose stares her down hard, obviously indicating her to not tell us. 

Oh, that little fucker.

She acts like she’s _so_ much older than you, but she’s really not. Little tricks like this brings out her little annoying sibling side, and goddamn was she the most annoying little sister. 

And people don’t believe you’re the older one, oh fuck are you mad right now. 

Goddamn your sister.

Of course, Kanaya doesn’t speak. You squint at Rose, then look down at John who is still speechless. You squeeze through him and walk inside.

“Fine, since none of y’all will explain to me how you got here, then I’m gonna look for the damn treasure.” 

You grab Johns wrist and start to walk upstairs until you hear Kanaya’s muffled giggle. 

You hear the dangling of keys, turning around at the sound, you see Rose holding a dainty-looking key in the air.

Little bitch.

“Looking for this?” 

John finally speaks, with a broken gasp.

“Is that the treasure??” 

Rose rolls her eyes playfully at his question, then smiles like a child as she brings the key down to her chest.

“No. Apparently we need to get a key first _before_ we find the treasure chest. Unfortunately for the both of you, and everyone else, you lost your chance. So now we’re the only ones going to win.” 

John gasps again, leaning onto the stair-well railing.

“What?? No! Why!”

John is absolutely oblivious to what’s going on, but you probably suspected that since he’s just so shocked right now. And also incredibly, incredibly sad.

You face-palm at his dumb question anyway. 

“Because there is only one key, _dumbass_. And this little—“ Rose squints at you, “I mean Rose fucking cheated. _Fuck_. I _knew_ we should’ve swam.” you whine.

Rose smirks, “That wouldn’t have been any better.” 

“Shut up, just shut up, Rose.” you squint at her through your hands.

John frowns and starts to pout as his hands tighten onto the railing, “But I worked _so_ hard..” he looks down at his hands like his hard work never paid off.

Rose walks up and gives his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

She’s really rubbing it in, huh?

“John if it makes you feel _any_ better we came here the same way you both did, but just a little earlier. So think of it this way; if you came earlier your plan surely would’ve paid off.”

_Horrible_ , just fucking _horrible_. 

He looks up at her with a dumb-founded look. “No. No, it doesnt. That doesn’t make me feel any better, Rose.”

She frowns and curves her lips into a cocky grin, “Well, I tried. Now if you’ll excuse us we have to find the treasure~” she sing-songs and skips up stairs, Kanaya following after her. 

John sighs as he slides down the wall, pulling his knees into his chest.

“..all my hard work.. for nothing..” his head hangs low onto his knees. 

You frown and sit down next to him, and begin to pat his shoulder.

“Cheer up man, there’s always next time. Also they cheated, so that’s no fair game.”

The front door barges open besides the both of you, the other contestants bolting inside, looking for the treasure. They all turn to you and John sulking.

You notice that Karkat isn’t with them at all, just Gamzee.

That’s weird, how did he get away with that? Aranea really let one that slide.

That’s hard to believe. 

Terezi is the first to speak, “Why are you both sulking? I can _smell_ the defeat and sweat from the both of you. Cheer up! We have a treasure to catch!” she cackles and starts to walk off into the nearby door. 

John pokes his head up and leans futher into the wall.

“There’s no point anymore. Rose and Kanaya have the key and probably found the treasure by now.”

Vriska storms up behind Terezi and practically shouts, “The _what_?!”

Apparently they’re speakers in this old as fuck ancient castle, because Aranea’s voice seeps through the speakers again, answering Vriska’s question without hesitation. 

“Why, the _key_ Vriska! Of course you can’t open a treasure chest without a key... and John is right. Rose and Kanaya have found the treasure chest.”

A sound of children cheering enters the speakers as Rose and Kanaya both appear from the stairs, carrying a bigass treasure chest together. 

Oh my god, oh my god. You’re going to fucking _kill_ her. 

“Care to share what’s inside the treasure chest, Rose?” Aranea says.

Rose’s smirk deepens as she puts the key through the chest, twisting it.

“One _thousand_ dollars.” 

She looks you dead in the eye as she opens it slowly.

You’re gonna go to jail. Because you’re going to fucking kill her. 

You flip her off and mouth a ‘fuck you’.

Aranea states that she’ll deposit the money into both their bank accounts, everyone groaning in irritation. They all complain about the fact that they swam all the way here for no goddamn reason. 

A ship comes by to drop you all off at the beach, it’s still quite sunny although everyone is still bummed out about not winning the prize. John doesn’t seem to talk that much the whole time so you just admire the blazing sun over the clear blue water.

You mentally note to beat Roses ass later, but first you have to find where the hell Karkat is.

Once you arrive to the beach (which doesn’t take long), your mind instantly focused on Karkat. He wasn’t on the ship at all or with Gamzee, so where could he have gone?

Aranea says that you’re all free to do whatever until tomorrow, which is set for another activity but only it’s a challenge this time. No one really pays it any mind so they go to the mini beach bar nearby or play volleyball. 

You tell John that you’ll catch up with him later, since your eager as fuck to find Karkat.

Time flies and you spend a good 30 minutes trying to find him, but no luck. You decide to go back to the beach to get some help, the sun is already setting and who knows? He’s probably at the beach right now. While your here, worried sick about him. 

Ugh. Why are you so worried?

You feel that stinge of _worry_ in your chest again, it kinda feels like something that happens _everytime_ you think about him. You can’t quite put your finger on it but for some reason you can’t help but feel so _worried_ about him, especially when he’s sad.

Especially with the way he looked at you today. His eyes were swallowed in fear, his heart was hammering in his chest you could _feel_ it.

Recalling it now, you start to notice things that you haven’t noticed before.

Maybe some insight from your friends will tell you about his whereabouts, but for now you’re going to ask Gamzee. Since they were partners, it’d be logical to ask him. But something in your gut squeezes at the thought of even talking to him or facing him.

He just really rubs you the wrong way.

Forget that, you gotta find your shouty friend. He might have even got _kidnapped_ for all you know.

You arrive at the beach again, John and Jade are playing beach volleyball with Terezi and Vriska. Rose and Kanaya are sitting by the bar with martini glasses in their hands, laughing and sipping eachothers glasses like their in a romantic lesbian short-film.

You finally find Gamzee, who is talking to Sollux by a pool of rocks where you found the motorboat with John. For some reason your mind tells you to eavesdrop, so you do. Nothing like getting some sweet information.

You fucking hide behind the rock wall like your playing hide and seek, hearing in on their conversation.

Sollux speaks in a low whisper, well, _trying_ to whisper.

“Hey, _asshole_ I know why you’re here. Don’t think my hacking skills are that weak that I can’t find out the most darkest secrets about you, and this show. I’ll expose your ass.” 

You move your head away from the rock, the fuck? Secrets? On this show? You accidentally trip a little bit, making some rocks move. Which makes a loud as _fuck_ noise.

Fucking fantastic. 

Sollux stops talking and walks torward the corner, “Who’s there?”

Welp, no use in hiding it now.

You walk in casually; as if you didn’t just eavesdrop on their secret conversation. Although your _dying_ to know about these ‘dark secrets’, but you guess that’s for another day.

“Hey guys.” 

Sollux squints at you suspiciously, “The fuck are you doing?” Fuck.

Time to come up with a lie. God, your the fucking worst at this shit.

You stutter, “Uh- well the others are wondering where you guys are so they told me to look for you two..” 

Sollux eyes you for a second but believes you. Thank fucking god. Either he’s dumb or is horrible at catching people lie. Maybe both.

Either way you’re fucking grateful for that miracle. He pushes his blaming finger off of Gamzee and walks past you. 

You turn around to stop him.

“Wait, do you know where Karkat is?” 

Sollux turns to you and shrugs.

“Fuck if I know, try the mansion maybe?” he huffs and begins to walk back to the others, shoving his hands in his pockets. 

You bite your lip, “Great.” then turn your gaze to Gamzee. Fuck.

His stare makes you freeze and instantly creeps you out. 

Well, you didn’t come here for nothing.

“Do you know where Karkat is?” 

Gamzee looks at you with a blank expression, his smile disappears from his face and he stares you with an expression you can’t quite identify before walking off torwards the mansion.

“Not sure, brother.”

Well if that wasn’t the most suspicious thing he’s ever said. It’s like he murdered him or some shit.

You sigh, leaving it alone and begin to walk back to the mansion until you see a small figure looking down at the ground, walking your way. 

“Karkat?”

He jumps at the sound of your voice, averting his head up from the ground with his usual scowl on his face. 

You bite back a relieved smile, “Holy shit, I’ve been wondering where you were. I haven’t seen you all day.” 

He rolls his eyes at you and stuffs his hands into his hoodie. “I’m honestly flattered you’ve been trying to find me this whole time.”

You grin, “Well, your back to your usual self again. That’s a good sign.” 

He doesn’t say anything to that, but it’s fine because your just so fucking relieved that he’s okay. The both of you walk together to the mansion in silence, until he stops his tracks.

You look back at him, raising a brow, “Kat? Are you coming?” stopping your heel on the steps. 

And without expecting it, Karkat hesitantly wraps his arms around your torso and hugs you. He actually fucking hugs you. Karkat, the defensive and shouty fucking guy _hugs_ you.

Your eyes widen in shock, unsure if you should hug him back or not. You hear him sniffle, obviously crying because you can feel the wet tears onto your bare chest. You awkwardly rub comforting circles on his back. 

Yeah, you did _not_ expect this either. 

Karkat finishes crying and pulls his head away from your chest, still hugging you. His voice is nasily and tired from the crying. 

He huffs a broken laugh, “Fuck. Sorry. I got tears and probably snot all over your fucking chest. That’s so gross.”

You grin down at him, fighting the heat off your face. “It’s all good dude, just some guys being dudes. If this isn’t the most gayest shit ever, what is? Don’t get offended by that, by the way. I’m gay.”

He snorts. “You saying controversial things is gonna get you in trouble. Especially since we’re on fucking television.” the fucker swats your cheek and you pray to _God_ that he doesn’t feel the heat on your face.

“I mean, your not wrong.”

The both of you laugh for a while until he sighs and pulls away from the hug. You feel your chest sting at the loss of contact.

“We should probably stop hugging until Aranea starts to give us shit for it later.” he crosses his arm.

You smirk, “Yeah, especially since you hugged me while I’m shirtless. You’re fucking _pervert_ , Vantas.”

You _think_ he blushes at your comment, but it’s hard to tell since it’s dark. He rolls his eyes once more and hides back a smile.

“Whatever. Let’s just go to our fucking dorms. I’m tired as shit.” 

You awkwardly step away from eachother and walk into the mansion, and head into your dorms. The others are on their way back now, since it’s starting to get dark. 

Karkat shuts the door behind you and puts his remote on his nightstand. Your about to go to the bathroom to take a shower until he stops you. 

“Dave,”

His voice is serious and geniune, it’s also the first time he used your voice geniunely. He bites his lip, looking down at the floor.

You turn to him while your hand is on the doorknob, “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

You smile and begin to shut the door behind you, “Anytime, Karkat.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please kudos, subscribe, bookmark and comment! ;););) also note: if ur confused abt dave saying ‘this for u, japan’ he’s basically half jap half irish. his hair is still blonde tho so yeah. just to let help y’all w the confusion dhdjd although if u wanna know the headcanons for the characters in this story lmk!
> 
> ANOTHER NOTE:  
> if u read my other story, im thinking of deleting the story and revamping it a lot more? Plz lemme know in the comments even tho some of u wont HAUSHS but i really dont like it i feel like its rushed... but just letting yall know if its gone; u heard iT HERE!


	4. Episode 3: Crack Rock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Season 1, Episode 3:  
> Last episode ended with a twist! But what will fall into for today? We’ll wait and see! Our first quarrel has started; Gamzee vs Karkat. Dave has been invovled into the mix, people apparently accusing him of arguing with Karkat. Despite that, the first challenge has also settled in! A dance competition. To see who the first 3 people to be nominated for elimination.. how will that turn out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crack Rock // Frank Ocean
> 
> CHAPTER WARNINGS : past abuse, blood, cutting, and child abuse. just many forms of abuse.
> 
> HEY! so last chapter was long asss fuckk and took a long time for me to write. So. as expected this’ll take a long time also. This is where the plot STARTS YALL! sorry for misspelling or grammar, it takes a lot of time to proofread this 3 times so i miss a lot of shit. a note; this whole story is dramatic as fuck because that’s the whole point of a reality tv show.  
> alsoo, sorry gamkar shippers but gamzee is a shitty person in this fic(mostly in all my fics). sooo sorry/:

Yesterday was a fucking _rollercoaster._ Two goddamnepisodes in this bitch and you’re already exhausted. 

But whatever, it’s honestly worth fucking 100 billion dollars. Goddamn, how are they _that_ rich? That number never ceases to surprise you. Who in their right mind gives $100 billion to a pack of greedy assholes? You sure wouldn’t.

You get up from your bed and notice that Karkat is already gone, bed made like he was never there. Seems like he’s got his shit together. 

Your eyes wander to the clock besides you, that says ‘7:30am’. What the fuck. Why are you up at this time? God forbid your brain. All you wanted to do was sleep the stress from this show away, and you didn’t even sleep in until 11.

This show is doing _something_ to you and you don’t like it. 

Well there’s no use in going back to sleep now, you’re already awake. You get up with a stretch and walk to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

You brush your teeth once you’re finished, ruffling your hair with a dry towel. Splashing some cold water onto your face, then slip on some adidas sweats.

I’m flexin’ on everyone because this expensive shit cost _half_ your earnings, ( _foreal_ ) so you _know_ you gotta stunt on em’.

You walk into the dining room, invited with the smell of bacon and eggs again. You follow the trail of hella-good-smelling bacon(like the cartoon you are) and end up to backroom; which is the kitchen.

You surprisingly see _Karkat_ whipping up a big ass breakfast for everyone, all by himself.

_Karkat,_ of all people.

He has about 3 pans on the stove, cooking them all at once like he’s a goddamn octopus.

You’re living in a _cartoon_. This is it, you’re on cartoon network _right_ now.

Fuck _Sanibel_ _Island_ , this is the shit.

He even has the goddamn oven on, and are those muffins? Okay, you wonder what made him in a good mood this morning because he is going _all_ out.

You grin to yourself, you _knew_ he had a soft side. Little fucker cooked _and_ baked up a storm for everyone.

He turns around to get something from the microwave, and his eyes find yours. He jolts, stepping back a bit, obviously startled at your sudden appearance.

Those _goddamn_ ninja genes, he probably didn’t even hear you come in.

Your grin grows wider.

“Hey Kat. I see you’re cookin’ up a feast.”

He straightens his stance as if you _didn’t_ just scare the shit out of him. He sets the bowl down beside him.

”..Yeah. So what?” he walks back over to the stove and grabs a wooden spoon in the drawer.

You’re grinning like a goddamn child now, because this is a great opportunity to get him riled up.

_Perfect_.

You grab a stool from the back table and sit a little beside him, leaving him enough space to cook. 

“I dunno, It’s just so fascinating to see the roudy, _loud_ Karkat make breakfast for all his friends. It’s like you’re in your natural habitat, to be honest. I’m in a goddamn nature show right now.” 

It seems to work, because Karkat is rolling his eyes as he sets the scrambeled eggs off the heat, “ _God_ you’re the fucking worst. Especially in the morning. Do you really talk this much? Also who said I’m making this breakfast for _everyone_?”

You curve your lips to the side and ignore his comment, “It sure looks like you’re cooking for everyone, dude. Are you really gonna eat _all_ those muffins?” 

Karkat turns off the stove and does the same with the bacon. He squints at you. 

“And what if I am?”

You gasp sarcastically as his squint deepens, “You _meanie_. You wouldn’t dare.”

He smirks, giving a petty shrug of his shoulders(it’s really cute) as he sets the bacon on a plate. He finishes the hashbrowns and leans into your face.

“ _Watch_ _me_.”

His face is not incredibly close to yours, but it’s still pretty fucking close. You don’t know for how long you stare, because you get quite a good look at his face. You notice that he has a _ton_ of beauty marks on his face, and one that pops out; under his left eye.

His hair is black and curly, but not as curly as yours. And compared to yourself, in which your pale as fuck and _covered_ in dark freckles, he has a much darker complexion than your own.

His skin is golden brown, and it contrasts _beautifully_ with his blue eyes.

Whoa there, Dave. Karkat’s your friend.

...and have you mentioned that it’s funny as _fuck_ to see his eyes bug out when he’s mad? It’s like those little eye-popping toys.

Yeah. It’s fucking hilarious. 

You very much realize that you’ve been speechless and staring for far too long, and to be honest you don’t really know what to say. Him being this close to your face shouldn’t leave your mind blank.

Also it’s getting really hot in here again.

Probably the heat from the stove. 

Karkat still has a smug smirk plastered all over his face, moving away to scrape off some of the excess hashbrowns off the pan. You sit on the stool as you awkwardly watch him, noticing that he makes a plate for the _both_ of you. 

You immediately perk up from your seat, “So I was right! You made a meal for everyone.” you give him a cocky grin.

Karkat rolls his eyes at you, “Of course, _dumbass_. You think I’m gonna eat _that_ much food?” he bends down to open the oven, bending further to reach for the muffins.

“Nahh. I knew you were lying anyway.” you reach for your plate and wait for him to get the muffins. 

And you _do_ _not_ stare at his ass while he bends down, he’s your friend.

You do. And you feel bad about it. You can’t help it, okay? The view is practically right _there_ for you to see. 

You look away when he begins to get up, finally getting the muffins from the oven. You grab your plate and start to walk out of the kitchen, feeling guilty for staring at his ass. 

He really shouldn’t have that thick of an ass and legs, shit should be a crime. 

Karkat follows after you until he stops, struggling to get through the door. His hands are full with a bigass plate of muffins and his own.

You raise a brow at him, watching him struggle to get the door open. 

“Dude, do you need help?”

He doesn’t answer, his stubborn silence lasts for a few seconds until you roll your eyes, opening the door for him.

He walks through the door and mutters a ‘thank you’. That’s as good as it’s gonna get, getting a ‘thank you’ from him.

He sets the muffins onto the table and everything else. And of course you help him, the kind friend that you are. 

Once your both done setting the tables, Karkat goes into the kitchen to get something. You decide to sit down and eat, because you’re starving as _fuck_ and don’t feel like waiting for him.

The selfish friend you are.

You’re about to sit down and enjoy your meal, until _someone_ stumbles into the dining room. 

_Gamzee_.

I mean, not that you have a _problem_ with him but it’s kinda odd to see him here at 8:30 in the fucking morning. But whatever. He doesn’t say much anyway, mostly just too high to muster a reply. 

You can relate, unfortunately. 

Standing there awkwardly, he looks you up and down. His stare is hard and unreadable, it kind of reminds you of your dad. And that’s definitely not a good thing. Your gut is telling you to get Karkat and run out of here, but of course you don’t do that. He hasn’t even done anything.

Right?

You finally get the courage to speak, “Hey, man.”

He smiles at you faintly, but it’s creepy as fuck. Althought it makes it a little _less_ creepy, because his clown makeup isn’t on, I _guess_.

Just a tad.

“Hey brother. Have you seen that little short guy?” the way he says ‘little’ kind of throws you off a bit, but you raise a brow at his question as you tilt your head. 

Oh. He means Karkat, obviously. 

You raise your brows in realization, “ _Oh_ , yeah. He’s in the kitchen-“ your stopped mid-sentence when Karkat walks back into the dining room. He looks at you first, then to Gamzee.

His content expression instantly falls to an angry _and_ terrified one. His whole body freezes as he stands there in silence, staring dumbly at Gamzee. 

Like he finally comes back to reality; his face forms into a quick, mean scowl.

And it’s not just Karkat’s usual scowl, it’s a _real_ geniune one. Like he’s legit fucking pissed, grade-A beyond fucking pissed in pissed class. He tightens his fists and doesn’t say anything, just staring at Gamzee in both _fear_ and anger. 

Gamzee forms another lazy grin, but it’s even creepier this time. It’s unsettling and distinct, the grin sends an overwhelmingly _bad_ feeling in your gut. 

“What’s with the long face, _Karbro_?” 

His voice is the same as his grin, _unsettling_. The way he says ‘ _Karbro_ ’ makes you instinctively step back a bit.

You turn to Karkat who tightens his grip even more, imagining that he must be _digging_ his nails into his skin.

Karkat doesn’t speak at all, he’s just frozen, standing there like if he moves, then his _prey_ will see him. His breathing is shortening and getting heavier now like it did at the club, except now it looks like he may have a panic attack. 

You begin to walk over to Karkat to calm him down, because you know what the beginning of a panic attack looks like. Until Gamzee steps in front of you, almost _predatorily,_ making you step back in fear.

You look at him and are about to say, ‘what the fuck man he’s gonna have a panic attack’ but don’t, because for some reason he scares the _shit_ out of you and leaves you speechless.

He grabs Karkat’s wrist _so_ harshly that it almost pushes you away. His voice husky and low as he speaks,

“Come with me, _kitty_.”

Okay, you don’t know what kind of kinky role-play this is but it’s creeping you out. This is _beyond_ fucking disturbing, and almost triggering. You cringe at the way he says kitty because that’s just, no. No. That’s not the move.

Thankfully Karkat doesn’t take his nick-name lightly,(thank god, you thought some kind of kinky three-sum was going to happen. You were about to tap the fuck out) but the exact opposite actually.

He slaps his arm off of him violently, and despite how small Karkat is compared to him, he manages to actually push him away. 

Karkat fucking yells, like he usually _does_ but this time it’s geniune and hurtful; like he’s broken inside.

“Get the _FUCK_ _off_ of me!” 

_Whoa_ , you’ve never seen Karkat so pissed before. He’s not even angry, he’s fucking scared. Like actually _so_ scared that he backs away from him and bumps his back into you, making him jolt in fear. He snaps his head into your direction.

He looks downright terrified and _traumatized_ , something you’ve seen on yourself before. 

His expression somewhat softens when he realizes that he bumped into you, but his breathing is getting quicker and quicker by the second. He instinctively rushes to your side like your some kind of _bodyguard_ or some shit. 

What the fuck is going on.

“What’s with the hostility, Karbro? I just came here to see if you wanted to continue what _we_ started.”

You cringe once more as he speaks, noticing he steps closer. You feel Karkat squeeze your upper-arm, everytime Gamzee steps closer. With as much strength as he can.

Like his life _depends_ on it.

Karkat’s nails dig into your skin and his nails are somewhat _long_ , if his grip gets any tighter you think you’ll have an episode. You decide to break the uneasy tension, before this gets _too_ fucking intense. And almost triggering. 

“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” you blurt out as Karkat’s grip only tightens harder.

Okay, that really hurts now, and reminds you of your dad slicing a dirty knife up your arm. 

None of them answer your question, thinking that Karkat’s mind is probably _fogged_ with thoughts about Gamzee in front of him. Gamzee just averts his eyes torwards you, then smirks.

“Lucky you.”

You _think_ he says to Karkat. Or you. Probably both. You don’t care, this clown is going to fucking murder you in your sleep now. And you are _very_ close to having an episode with the way Karkat is gripping your arm. 

Karkat finally speaks, his voice the same as before but shaky this time. 

“ _Fuck_ _you_.” 

As if his grip can’t get any tighter, it does, and it fucking stings as his nails dig into your skin, _deeper_ this time, _almost_ drawing blood. Before this gets anymore triggering than it already is, you bite back the nauseous feeling and yank his hands _lightly_ off you.

His head abruptly turns to you quickly, like he forgot you were there. Again. 

You look down at your arm and it’s extremely red; pulsing in pain which only reminds you of your dad. Your mind subconsciously drifts to the memory of him grabbing your arm, you _begging_ him to stop. He never listens to your screams, only giving you a cold stare and lines down your arm with cigarette burns. Every. Time. You. Talked. Back.

Sometimes it was cuts on the arm with a knife when you were being _really bad,_ but that shit hurt way more than cigarettes.

Ugh. This is _insanely_ appalling. This is absolutely not how you wanted you’re morning to go.

Gamzee _finally_ leaves, giving you both a dirty look, walking to the common room. The tension in the room is finally somewhat lifted. 

A couple seconds of silence pass by, and Karkat slowly steps away from you. He looks at the ground in silence, _shock_ even as he looks at your arm. His body stiffens at the sight, then looks away shamefully.

His voice is quiet and embarrassed.

“I’m sorry for gripping you like that. That was fucking stupid of me. _God_ , I’m _so_ stupid, I’m _so_ sorry. I dragged you into this.” his voice cracks, stepping away from you as he closes in on himself.

You bite your lip, unsure of what to say until he starts crying softly. Sure, his grip _wasn’t_ at _all_ pleasant but it’s not something you’re gonna give him shit for.

You frown at the vulnerable state he’s in, and run up to him without hesitation. Draping a comforting arm around his shoulders, he begins to sob into his hands, rejecting your comfort shamefully. You rub his arm gently as his breathing get’s worse, thinking that he’ll probably have a panic attack if he doesn’t control his breathing.

You mutter ‘breathe’ to him, and keep telling him that until he calms down.

Rose would be so proud of you. Fucking therapist _certified_. You are the bestest fucking friend ever. 

He finally calms down, breathing becomes more even and controllable now. He wipes tears away from his eyes and crosses his arms uncomfortably as he looks at you in embarrassment. 

Karkat nudges you to push your arm off him, stepping away and finally begins to speak. Voice in a low, vunerable whisper.

“I think... I think I should go.”

You want to tell him _no_. To not leave, that you’re here for him whenever he needs someone to talk to but you don’t. You don’t say anything. All you do is nod, watching him walk through the living room, then straight to your dorms. 

You really hope Aranea doesn’t pair him up with Gamzee, because that was a fucking mess. 

Fuck. It’s only been 2 hours (mega deja vu there, bud) and you’re already exhausted. That was exhausting as fuck and you think you may have a mental breakdown.

You look down at your plate, suddenly not feeling very hungry anymore. You’re about to leave until you hear a group of people talking as they approach the dining room. You see Jade walk in, talking to Kanaya and Rose, the others following after them. All of them laughing hysterically.

Great. You were just about to leave and have a mental breakdown.

They all find you about to leave with the plate in your hands, Jade looking at the plate then back at you. 

“You made breakfast without us, Dave?” she pouts. 

You give her a tired smile, “Hell no, I’m just not hungry.. right now.” you glance at Rose, who immediately figures out something is wrong.

“Karkat made you all breakfast, by the way.” you continue. 

Everyone immediately rushes to the kitchen without hesitation, grabbing themselves a plate and fighting over who gets the most bacon. Watching them happily sit down to eat, very pleased with Karkat’s food.

You hope they keep in mind to thank him later, because he really deserves it. 

Jade asks if you want your plate, you tell her she can have it and she hugs you, repeating multiple ‘thank you’s’ until she let’s go to sit down and eat. 

Terezi grabs a shitload of muffins, stuffing three in her mouth while John challenges her to an eating contest. Kanaya starts up a chat with Aradia and Feferi, while Sollux steals from Aradia’s plate. Jade finishes her breakfast(or yours) and sits by John, inviting herself to the eating contest. 

You stand there awkwardly, just watching how happy everyone is. The tension really changed that quickly, it’s like what happened between Karkat and Gamze never happened. 

Rose notices you standing there like a fucking weirdo, so she excuses herself and signals her head out the door to talk to you.

You follow after her, keeping your head down as she takes you into a seperate living room. One that’s not too far from the dining room(there’s a lot of rooms incase you haven’t noticed).

Rose crosses her arms in a focusing manner, “What happened?” she gets straight to the point.

“I honestly don’t know.” You sigh, as you run a hand through your hair.

She furrows her brows and lands a hand onto your shoulder. 

“Start from the beginning.” 

And you do, you tell her what happened bright and early at 8:30 fucking am in the morning. You tell her how scared Karkat was of Gamzee, and how it made him have a panic attack. You tell her that Gamzee freaks you the hell out, and that Karkat’s grip _tightening_ triggered you _mega._

You also tell her you feel like a bad friend, like you should’ve done something more about Karkat’s attack. But you didn’t. So therefore you fucked up.

You _fucked_ up. It keeps repeating over and over again in your head, and you don’t know why. You don’t know how you fucked up. 

You were told that throughout your childhood, dad telling you that you’re fucked up and even your mom sometimes, because no one ever cared about you. When you went to school people would say that you’re fucked up.

Because you are.

Rose notices you take off your shades in frustration as you rant, she frowns and gives you reassuring squeezes.

Finally, you’re done and look down at the floor. It’s not that you’re scared to look at Rose, you’re _scared_ that you’re going to cry. You haven’t cried in so long, only in stress or frustration after a long day of working 3 jobs, taking care of your little brother and sometimes even _Rose_ when your parents never would.

But you don’t cry. You bite your lip to hold them back and slip your shades back on. Rose tells you some advice or something reassuring, but you can’t listen. You’ve completely blocked her out of your mind.

You just miss your little brother. You miss your comfy, cheap little apartment. You miss seeing a smile on his face whenever you came home with orange creamsicles or soda, even a new toy with the little money you had. 

You miss making him happy with you just _being_ there. Because maybe that was enough. Because maybe that’s _all_ he ever wanted. 

And maybe, just maybe, you fucked up your life in some way. 

-

The clock hits noon, and you’re walking back to the mansion now. You took a long walk to calm yourself down; suggested by _Rose_ and it worked, until Aranea called all of you to come to the mansion.

She’s going to announce the challenge for today, and you’re not at all excited. You just want this day to end.

But you’re not going to let a rough morning ruin your day, so the only thing for you to do is to think positively. All you have to do is win the money. Then you’ll get to see your little bro again.

You’ll get to enroll him into middle school, better than how you experienced it. You want him to experience the best in life, like getting him those dope ass stationary pens from the downtown Jap store, and a bigass crayola box with the sharpener on the back. 

He’s gonna fucking rule sixth grade. Fuck what anyone says, you’ll put him into the most safest middle school in Texas. Meaning, one that’s not as white-biased and overly religious to the point that they use homophobic slurs.

You don’t want people to tell him he’s fucked up or worthless, because you’ve had your fair share of that growing up. You don’t want him to suffer like you did. You don’t want to see him so stressed that he cries. You don’t want to see him being angry all the time.

You want him to be happy, like you wish you were throughout school. 

Although he probably won’t need crayons, he’s not in elementary school anymore. _Duh_.

But now you can _finally_ say; they grow up so fast. 

You grin to yourself like an idiot.

You walk into the common room and find everyone there, waiting for Aranea’s further instructions. You look for Karkat, and find him talking to Kanaya. He looks a little uneasy, obviously, because of what happened this morning.

He notices you staring at him and freezes, quickly averting his eyes away from yours.

You don’t bother to look for Gamzee, because he still creeps the living shit out of you. Especially with what happened this _morning._

Aranea finally speaks, breaking through everyones conversations. 

“Hello Contestants! Quite a rough morning, _wasn’t_ _it?_ ” you immediately cringe as she eyes Karkat and Gamzee, also you, but you try your _best_ ignore it.

But you can’t, because what the fuck.

The camera’s were rolling?

You turn your gaze to Karkat, face just as shocked as yours. Kanaya nudges his shoulder and he snaps back to reality, probably telling her that he’s ‘ _fine_ ’. He finds you staring at him again, but this time he doesn’t look away. He gives you a knowing and uneasy look.

Fuck.

That little bitch. That means she heard you ranting to Rose.

God fucking dammnit.

Araneas notices your expressions, hiding a smug grin.

Biiitch.

“Although, don’t worry about that, the camera’s don’t roll until the challenges start. But be careful next time!” everyone is confused as fuck, looking around for who she’s talking too.

You look down at the floor to not catch anyones attention, because you’re absolute _shit_ at lying. Aranea is literally the worst person ever, she _has_ to be a fucking sociopath.

She finally stops touching on the topic and continues, “ _Anyway_ , onto our challenge for today... today we are holding a dance competition! But wait— not a competition, we are _practicing_ today. Because tomorrow is the _real_ competition!”

..Uh... What?

“But not only that! It’s your chance to prove to your fellow contestants, and not only them, the viewers.. that you should stay on the show! Therefore..” 

Her grin turns into a dead, thin line.

“ _Don’t get eliminated.”_

Her voice is serious, and not the dramatic-tv-show kind. It’s geniune. Like she’s actually capable of communiting human emotions, the sociopath she is. It makes you a little eerie about the way she says it, because she sounds _too_ human.

Moments of silence pass by until she settles into her fake smile again(weird), “Perfect! Make sure to practice for tomorrow! Your partner is on your remote.”

You bite your lip in worry, shit, you almost forgot. You hope she has atleast _some_ human decency left to not let Karkat partner up with Gamzee. You take a look at your remote and gasp.

Quite the opposite, really. _Karkat_ is your partner. 

For a _dance_ competition. Out of all the things he could’ve been your partner for, it had to be a dancing competition.

Fucking peachy.

Something in your stomach flutters at the thought though, but you ignore it, beginning to look for Karkat. 

You find him standing awkwardly by the door, looking down at the remote. You approach him and tap his shoulder _lightly,_ to get his attention. 

He snaps his head up hastily with a scowl, but it disappears once he realizes it’s you. 

“Hey, partner.” you joke, hoping that he’ll atleast react the same way he usually does.

And thankfully he does, returning you with a glare of his own.

“Great. I’m stuck with you.” 

You smile and shrug, “Better than nothin’, bro.” 

He bites his lip at that, and it makes your stomach flutter in a good way again(seriously, what the fuck), as he mutters a ‘yeah..’ and looks down at the floor again. 

Everyone leaves the room with their partners, and you notice Vriska and Gamzee(that’s a crackship if you’ve ever seen one) walk outside. You and Karkat both stand there in silence, unsure of what to say after what happened this _morning_. 

You’ve said that like three times now, fuck. It was crazy, okay? 

You really need sleep.

Karkat finally breaks the awkward tension between the two of you, with a breathy voice.

“Dave, I’m sorry about this morning. You’re probably really fucking confused and I don’t blame you. But I also don’t want to say anything on camera about the whole situation but..” he bites his lip again, (beginning to be a habit of his) that makes you have that fluttery feeling again.

He looks unsure if he wants to continue, but says it anyway. And you’re not too sure if he should’ve said it either, but, whatever. 

“..but.. he’s just,” he breathes, “he’s just not a good person. _Gamzee_.” he finally spits out.

He obviously doesn’t tell you the reason why, because like he said; he’s on _camera._ Butyou believe him. The way Gamzee sets you off is in an extremely overbearingly bad way, so you’ll trust your instincts, which tends to work a lot. 

You give him a reassuring smile, “No need to apologize bro, I believe you. You’re like, my best fucking bud on this show man. How could I _not_ believe you? He gives me the creeps anyway.”

Karkat raises his eyebrows in surprise, then quickly glares down at the floor, trying or you _think_ fighting a blush. 

The sight makes you feel happy as fuck, because you think you just made him blush without trying. Why the fuck does this make you so happy? You also keep getting that repeating, fluttery feeling in your stomach. 

You’re in like a goddamn anime. 

..something like that.

He finally recovers from his blush attack and returns with the usual scowl on his face, “ _Thanks_. Also why the fuck are you wearing shades indoors? You look dumb as fuck.” 

He points at your sunglasses, squinting through his long eyelashes. His face is still a bit red, but it’s cute and mixes well with the tanness of his skin.

Karkat is fucking adorable.

You take off your glasses with a shrug, “Well, if it bothers you _that_ much I’ll take them off for you, your _highness_. I know my eyes are gorgeous, but jeez.” you tug them on the hem of your shirt.

He ignores your comment with the roll of his eyes, but it doesn’t hide the fact that he helplessly glances at you every now and then.

“Whatever. Let’s get this stupid challenge over with..” he crosses his arms as he walks upstairs.

You follow him, unsure of where the hell he’s taking you. Both ending up upstairs, he turns left, entering a hallway where you’ve never been before.

Actually, you probably have, you just couldn’t catch up during the tour yesterday. 

“Where are we going? Are you gonna show me the hidden room in this mansion? Goddamn is there gonna be some kind of hidden mystery? I swear to _God_ if you’ve cracked the code to this whole thing-“

He turns around with an annoyed huff and leans up to you, placing a small finger to your lips.

You feel heat creeping onto your cheeks as you stare into his eyes, noticing the little eyeliner he put on today. He shushes you, then quickly pulls away and continues to walk down the hall into a seperate room. 

You stand there awkwardly, and very much notice that your heart is beating so fast like a goddamn race car. 

Holy fuck. That shouldn’t have made your heart-beat so fast.

You fight the heat off of your face as you follow him into a.. dancing room? Goddamn. You didn’t even notice that throughout the tour.

He sighs and turns around to face you.

“So what the fuck do you want to do?”

You bite your lip in thought, “Uhh, I’ve never danced before.. so I don’t fucking know..” you gasp in realization at the most perfect idea.

“Let’s do the _macarena_.”

Karkat facepalms at your suggestion, with the roll of his eyes, “You _dumbass_ , that could get us kicked off the show.”

You raise a brow at him.

“Wait, we could get kicked off the show? 

He goes to the dance closet to get out a box of CDs, turning to look at you dumbly. 

“Yes, you dunderfuck. Did you not hear what Aranea said? If we get picked for having a bad preformance, we could be up for elimination.” 

Oh, you didn’t think she was being serious. You’re in deep shit now.

You frown, “I didn’t think she actually mean’t it..” 

You squat down next to him as he goes through the salsa and latin side of the CDs.

“Given with what she said this morning about Gamzee and I, I’m pretty sure she did, Strider.” he picks up a salsa disk and looks at you in approval.

You ignore his reply, unsure of what to say and give him a displeasing look at his choice. 

“ _Really?_ _Salsa_? Man, aren’t you afraid that my white ass will fuck this up?” you joke, but mean it at the same time.

It’s true.

He laughs at your comment as he rolls his eyes, “ _Come_ _on_ , Strider. Anyone can do salsa aslong as you put your _heart_ into it.” he says sarcastically. Ow, that hurt, the cheesiness in his voice 

He continues, “But really, that’s what it’s all about. Anyway, it’s not that hard. What else would you do? _Slow_ _dance?_ Tobe honest, I don’t think you look the type too, Strider.” he smiles at you smuggly.

You glare at him and ignore the blush creeping onto your cheeks again.

“..You’re not wrong.. let’s salsa.” 

He grins, obviously feeling proud of himself to get you to agree with him.

Little fucker. 

“Great!” he leans into your face teasingly, then pushes the CDs back into the closet. 

You get up from his side so he doesn’t see the blush on your cheeks, and watch him as he tries to get the boombox out of the closet. He struggles, pulling it with all his strength until he groans in frustration.

You cross your arms as you watch him amusingly.

He gives up with a pout, then turning to glare at you.

Now it’s _your_ turn to tease him. 

“Need help?” you smirk.

His glare intesifies, “Fuck you.” 

You help him pick up the heavy, and _extremely_ old boombox. You’d think that this show would be rich enough to get a bose speaker but no, no they’re not. If they needed Karkat to help out in makeup and dressing, then they surely can’t buy decent equipment.

Fucking pathetic.

You both put the boombox in the corner of the dance studio, making sure it doesn’t get in the way. Karkat enters the CD disc in and an _extremely_ dramatic salsa song comes on, blasting in full volume. 

Karkat jolts at the sound, turning the volume down automatically which makes you snort. He hears you, despite the loud music playing and scowls. 

“I thought _Hips_ _Don’t_ _Lie_ by _Shakira_ was gonna start playing, but I was wrong.” you frown as you squat down next to him. 

He rolls his eyes, listening to the intro of each song, then skipping it if it sounds too dramatic. Which is impossible, because they are _all_ dramatic. 

“This is a Puerto-Rican CD disc, I doubt she’d be on here.” he informs. 

You tilt your head torwards his face with a playful smile, “Well, that sucks, because I was really hoping to see you move your hips to the beat cause’ _your_ hips don’t lie.” 

Despite how cheesy that comment was, you take a look at his face and he looks up at you in disbelief, _kind_ of having a tinted blush on his cheeks but is hidden by his usual annoyed scowls. 

You can feel the heat rush on his face, and maybe yours too. Except his is maybe from both anger or embarrassment. 

“Shut the fuck up and _never_ tell me that again.”

He glares at you with a menacing voice, going back to looking for a song. 

You shrug, watching him as he stumbles onto a song that sounds oddly familiar. The beat is simple, it’s like any other salsa song but it’s not as intense. You take the CD cover and look at the back.

“What song is this?” you turn to Karkat.

He leans by your side and scans the back as well, putting his finger on it to find the title. 

Karkat, being this close to your face, makes your breathing slow down, and your face heat up once more. Ugh. Does he really have to be _that_ close? You can feel the breathe off his voice as he speaks.

He looks at you, then back at the CD, puffing his lips, “ _Sin Salsa No Hay Paraíso..”_

Your stomach does flips when you hear him say it, his voice is so different, a lot calmer and focused when he speaks spanish, making you think that it was probably his first language. 

You can kind of relate to that, but not really because you dropped Japanese once your mom got into drugs and alcohol, not bothering to take care of her kids anymore. You can rarely speak or understand it anymore.

Ah, the good ol’ days.

You give him a nod, like you haven’t just awkwardly sat there in thought for too long. 

“Cool, so how the hell do I dance to this?” you get up.

He pushes the repeat button and grabs a hairtye from his wrist, putting his short curly hair into little pony tail, revealing the lots of earrings on his hella pierced ears. 

It’s really cute. 

You should really stop saying that in your head, because you might say it out loud. It’s happened before.

He smirks, “Just follow my lead.” 

You put your shades by the boombox, making sure not to get them stomped on throughout the dancing. You’re about to kick off your slippers, until you feel him stare at you.

“Uh, should I take off my slippers?” you turn to him.

He snorts, “If you want, but you probably should because they’re _slippers_.”

He begins to take off his own so he doesn’t step on your feet, revealing fishnet socks. Your face begins to form into a teasing smirk, he notices your expression and begins to retort but you interrupt him.

“Whoa, easy there, Karkat. No need to win me over with those sexy thangs.” you eye his socks and begin to laugh. 

“Fuck you, they go perfectly with my outfit.” he defends.

You laugh even harder, as he cusses at your banter of laughter. Which only makes you laugh harder. Though he’s not wrong, he’s wearing black shorts and a fuzzy turtle-neck.

It doesn’t stop you from laughing, though. 

He rolls his eyes and grumbles, “You can’t fucking appreciate my pretty socks, then I don’t have time to do salsa with you.” 

He begins to get up, but you grab his arm lightly, but only this time he doesn’t snap at you surprisngly. He just stares at you wearily.

“I’m sorry, come back, i-it’s just it reminds me of an anime character,” you say inbetween laughs. 

Karkat scowls at you and finally yanks his arm away, “Dave! Can you stop making fun of me so we can fucking practice?!” he yells at you.

You stop your laughing and wipe your tears away, finally giving in. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop making fun of you..” you look up at him, and he is annoyed as fuck.

The sight only makes you laugh harder, but in the inside of course.

He let’s go of his annoyed expression and takes a big deep breathe, reapeating, ‘I’m not going to beat your ass..’ multiple times to calm himself down.

You try so hard not to laugh. But thankfully you don’t, because he probably would’ve ripped your ass into shreds. He finally calms down, looking at you with a cross of his arms.

You smirk, “You done?”

“Don’t speak,” he warns.

Karkat grabs ahold of your hands, and your face heats up at the contact. You pray to _God_ he doesn’t notice. Completely forgetting about how hilarious it was to see him, of all people, wearing fishnet socks.

Don’t laugh, Dave. Don’t laugh.

His grip on both your hands tightens as he speaks, “Since you’re taller I think it’d be more convenient for me to dip, so you’re gonna have to pay close _attention_ to this, Strider.”

You begin to ask, ‘the fuck is a dip?’ until the song starts playing, Karkat abruptly starts to motion his legs to the right then left. At first your confused as fuck, but eventually get the hang of it and start copying his every movement. 

It feels like forever, because the whole time you’re just staring at his face. You observe how concentrated he is, the way his brow furrows when he notices something is wrong in your stance, or when he gives you a geniune smile, when you do something right. 

It makes your fucking _heart_ flutter. 

Once you both hit a part in the song where you have to twirl him around or some shit, he tells you he has to dance on you from the back. You ignore the intense blush on your cheeks, feeling like a horny teen boy in highschool again. 

Listen, it’s _basically_ like grinding and your gonna have to admit that Karkat is really attractive and the fact that his nice ass is going to be very close to your crotch is obviously going to make you nervous. The fact that he’s wearing shorts, also, doesn’t make it any better.

He notices the blush on your cheeks but doesn’t tease you, because he has a blush of his own, to your surprise. 

You are _really_ in an anime. 

You sigh, “Not to be mean or anything, like I’m not saying that I don’t want you to be that _close_ to me or anything like I’m cool with it because it’ll be hot as fuck— I mean, fuck, not hot,” you stop yourself, groaning in frustration. 

You can’t _believe_ you just said that.

Fuck my life.

“Do you just think we could do something else..?” you avoid his stare, he’s totally gonna give you shit for this. 

Aranea is gonna have a fucking _field_ day on this.

Karkat’s grip on your hands loosens, you risk a glance at him and to your surprise he isn’t grinning at you with that smug smile of his, he’s actually blushing. Like his face is bright fucking red.

He’s staring straight at you, with an almost longing look and you ignore the fluttering feeling in your stomach again. For the millionth time.

“ _Karkat_?” you break him from his stare, blush still visible.

He looks at you, “Y-Yes?”

He actually fucking stutters, like he did on the runway. It’s not cute, Dave. It’s not. Karkat is your _friend_. 

You huff in impatience, “I asked if you wanted to do something else? Rather than.. you know what, I don’t wanna fucking repeat myself, sorry dude.” you roll your eyes at your embarrassing word vomit from earlier.

Fuck my life. 

You don’t want to pop a boner in front of the whole world, okay? It’s already embarrassing enough as it is, because the cameras are probably rolling on you two right now.

_Fuckk_ myy lifeee.

Karkat nods hesitantly, “..Okay. Then do you just want to do twirls and a dip?” 

“Yeah, sure. Whatever that is.”

You give him an awkward small smile, and by your surprise he returns it. His grip in your hands tighten again.

The song starts to play again, and Karkat teaches you how to twirl him, then bring him back into your arms. The action makes your face heat up again, but you shrug it off as the heat and sweat from all the dancing. 

You do it for a couple of times until you get the hang of it, Karkart let’s go of your hands to restart the whole song. He joins hands with you again and starts to do it from the beginning, but only this time, you have to ‘ _dip_ ’ him.

At first you both start to salsa like normal, then the part of the song kicks in where you have to twirl him around. You do so until it’s time for the _dip_ , Karkat guides your left hand down his back, then he extends his back to the floor, making him dip into the floor.

Oh. _Oh_. This is what he meant.

Well if this isn’t the most gayest thing you’ve ever done. Your dad would be _pissed._ He is probably pissing his pants in prison right now.

You eventually pick him back up when the song ends, staring at eachother for what feels like eternity. 

His eyes are half-lidded and a bit hazy; tired from the dancing. His face is sweaty and burning, much like your own. But despite how sweaty he is, he still manages to look _so_ etheral. You look at the many beauty marks on his face and one on the corner of his plump lips.

You stare way longer than you should have, at his lips.

Karkat is really pretty. And you think the reason why you have this fluttering feeling in your stomach all the time whenever he smiles or just does something remarkably cute, or saying anything in general is because.. well, you _fucking_ like him.

You like him, which means you have a major, school-girl crush on Karkat Vantas. 

Out of all the things to happen on this show, you find someone you geniunely like. You haven’t felt this way since highschool, but it’s obviously much differently this time. You use to have stupid crushes on girls or boys, but could never figure out what the feeling means.

But apparently it means you like them, or something like that. Like you want to kiss their face and listen to their problems all day. As Rose translated, for you.

And now here you are, feeling the same amazing but yet dreadful emotion again. 

You are head over heels with fucking Karkat Vantas, and you are very much out of his league. 

Karkat let’s go of your hands and gets a bottle of water from a mini fridge(you didn’t know that was there, what the fuck).

You look down at your hands.

Out of all the people you liked throughout your life, your mind is _telling_ you it’s _Karkat_. Someone who speaks their mind and is incredibly attractive, cares about their friends and is willing to do _anything_ for them. 

All in three goddam days you already have a crush. You really fucked yourself over with this one. 

“Are you just going to stand there all day, Strider?” Karkat interrupts your train of thought as he hands you over a water bottle.

Well, he kind of did, because he was _literally_ in your thoughts. 

You take the bottle from him, “Nah.”

Yep. Nothing like I just realized that I liked you or anything, seriously. You uncap the bottle and drink the whole thing, like it’ll make you stop you’re feelings. But it doesn’t.

You exhale dramatically and crush the bottle. 

Karkat raises a brow at you, “Wow, that salsa dancing _really_ got to you.” he mocks you. 

“ _Sorry_ I’m not a professional salsa dancer like you. Seriously Kat, when did you learn how to do that?” you squint and throw the bottle in the trash. 

Karkat finishes the last of his water, “I’m Puerto-Rican, so I grew up learning how to salsa by my mom.” he throws the bottle away.

You walk over to the closet and go through the CD discs again, Karkat presses a button on the boombox to get the disc, then hands it over to you. 

“That’s dope, I wish I could experience more of my culture. What I got was two annoying siblings, one amazing little brother and two crackheads for parents.” you put the CD back into the right section. 

Yeah, you don’t give a shit if they’re watching. Fuck you dad. You too, mom. 

Karkat is silent for a while, then speaks with a surprisingly gentle voice.

“...I’m sorry, Dave. That sucks. My dad was a fucking jerk, so I can relate with you half-heartedly on that one.” he kneels down next to you.

You turn to him with a smile, feeling like that’s all you need to say and go back to looking for other CDs.

Silence passes by for a while, only the sound of you shuffling through the CDs, looking for an artists your familiar with. Karkat finally speaks as he looks for CDs too, looking through the other box. 

“Also, I thought you were white? What do you mean you have a culture..” he eyes you suspiciously.

You smirk at him, “So white people can’t have culture now?”

“You know what I mean, asshole. Now tell me the truth.” he rolls his eyes. 

You bite your smirk back and go into deep thought, you didn’t expect him to ask that question at all. You go through the ‘F’ file of the CDs. 

You don’t really know much about your Japanese heritage, all you know is anime, sushi, and sake(from your mom and her alcoholic needs), mostly based on stereotypes at school. 

But when you were little your mom was big on her culture, she was encouraged to teach you and your siblings the language and culture. You know, the basics; how to use chopsticks instead of forks, or cook properly, always teaching you how to make the _perfect_ miso. 

She even saved up on taking you all to Japan, away from your dad. But that didn’t turn out well when he found out. He was pissed.

Your dad ruined everything, he’s the reason why your mom is so fucked up now, and even yourself. You only hate her a little less than your dad; because she would watch him torture you. 

She was blinded by ‘ _love_ ’, I guess. However the fuck she found abuse as ‘ _love_ ’ you will never understand. He fucking manipulated her into thinking it was. And she believed him, thinking what he was doing was right.

You don’t think you’ll ever forgive her. Especially for that one time he almost slit your throat because you _threatened_ him, telling him that you’d tell mom he was with another woman.

The truth is, is that he was.

You did tell your mom though, but she didn’t believe you at all. The next day your dad gave you a major ass-whooping, and she watched in silence. Not even bothering to call the police.

Roxy and Rose would always try to get invovled, but they rarely got too because mom would hold them back. They would never get hit also, only you because _you’re a man._ Your dad is fucking _ripped_ so whenever he’d slam you against the wall you swear you heard your back crack. It probably did, you just couldn’t feel it because you were in deep shock.

You snap back into reality, _God_. That always happens.

Karkat notices your silence, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that, I’m stupid as fuck.” he frowns and you can tell he’s beating himself mentally for it.

You discard yourself from your thoughts, finally speaking.

“No, it’s fine dude. It just got me thinking, is all...” you sigh.

“But yes, I’m White but also half Japanese. Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound fucking mysterious or anything. I just look more, you know...” you breathe and run a hand through your hair in frustration, “..you know what, I don’t really know anymore.”

You remember telling kids in kindergarten that you’re Japanese, but they’d never believe you. Or when sometimes you would speak it in 3rd-4th grade to prove a point, they’d call you a fucking weeb or tell you to just ‘be white’. Whatever the fuck _that_ means.

So you don’t even bother saying that you are anymore, because it’s annoying as fuck. 

Karkat is silent for a while, but then gives you his usual annoyed huffs, “Don’t say shit like that, the ‘I don’t look it’ crap. Fuck that. Just because your half asian doesn’t make you _not_ asian.” 

You turn to him and bite your lip, not sure what to say to that, because no one has really said that to you before. Especially since you grew up in Texas, or probably on the very white-biased side of it, not the _best_ experience. 

Sure, your white passing but it’s no fun when you’d tell people that your actually biracial, they’d just tell you your white or just say, ‘be proud to be white’.

Ah, I _love_ Texas.

You continue to look through the ‘F’ file of CDs until you stumble upon.. 

“Holy fuck. Frank Ocean. They really have this bitch, despite all of the indie songs. They have someone I actually know. Karkat, pop this in the boombox.” you hand him the ‘blonde’ CD album.

Karkat raises a brow at you but complies, popping the CD into the boombox.

_Nikes_ is the first song that plays, and it immediately reminds you of that one time you were drawing and listening to his album illegally on some website.

You’re too poor to fucking buy it, okay.

“ _Yesss_ ,” you say as it starts playing. 

Karkat looks at you in amusement, “I didn’t know you liked him so much.” he crosses his arms.

You sit up and squint at him, trying to see if he’s lying or some shit because who hasn’t listened to Frank Ocean?

“Dude. How have you not listened??” you ask incredously.

Karkat scoffs, “Just because I said that doesn’t mean I don’t _listen_ to him, Dave. Of course I do. Who do you take me for? I just didn’t think you’d like him this much.” he looks at the back of the CD.

“Fair enough, but yeah, I do. I always listened to him to calm myself down whenever...” your mind instantly trails off to your dad pinning your mom against the wall, Rose screaming for them to stop. 

“...Yeah. I just really like his music.” you skip the song to _Ivy_ because that shit hits _hard_.

Karkat ignores your stopped sentence, and listens to the song as he scans the list of songs on the CD.

-

Time passes by as you listen to three or four songs until you both decide it’s time to get back and join the others for dinner. You take the CD with you, slipping your slippers back on and put your shades onto the hem on your shirt. 

You both walk through the halls, about to walk down the stairs until Karkat stops in front of you. The sudden motion makes you bump into him.

You huff irritably, “Hey, dude, watch out-“ until you look up, seeing Gamzee and Vriska. 

Gamzee is staring at Karkat the same way he did this morning, and with the new information that Karkat told you, him towering over the both of you _overwhelms_ you with fear. 

There is _definitely_ something wrong with him.

Vriska breaks the silence with a petty stomp, “Hi, _Karkat_. Gamzee told me what happened between you two this morning.” 

Okay now you know why you hate Reality T.V. sometimes, because drama like this. And now your _in_ one right now. 

Karkat doesn’t say anything, just scowls at her with a clench of his fists. He grabs your arm to walk away until Vriska stubbornly speaks up again, making him stop.

“You didn’t have to get _Dave_ invovled, _Karkat_. Listen, I _know_ you just _love_ fucking everyone you see, but please be considerate of Dave’s emotions.” she sarcastically pouts at your name at the end.

_Emotions?_ What the fuck does that mean? 

You look at Karkat in confusion, his grip on your arm loosens as his eyes are on the brim of tears. The sight makes your heart clench and all you want to do is _hug_ him ti’ll he feels like himself again. You may not know what the fuck is going on, but Karkat is _not_ a bad person. 

He _finally_ cracks. 

“You know _what_? Fuck _BOTH OF YOU!_ And _wow_ , good going _Gamzee_ , you didn’t have to go around telling _everyone_. Seriously, go _FUCK_ yourselves! Since you both get off by people’s pain, why don’t you go fuck eachother? I think that’d be greatly appreciated!” he throws his hands in the air in pure anger, shouting in both their faces. 

You’re surprised to see neither of them flinch, because you would bend down on your knees and beg Karkat for forgiveness. You’d feel like shit.

Okay, that sounded way too kinky. You didn’t mean it in that way. 

Vriska laughs, she fucking _laughs_ in his face. Is everyone on this show on the spectrum of being a sociopath or is it just you that thinks that? Cause’ what the actual _fuck_ , you feel like you’re in Texas again. 

“Karkat, wouldn’t _you_ know about fucking sadistic people?”

Her voice is venomous and cold, sending a bad feeling in your gut. You may not know what the fuck is going on, but you’re not _that_ stupid or oblivious to know what that means. Not that you want to jump to conclusions or anything, but you think you have an idea to what’s going on.

You don’t _want_ to believe it, because that’s _so_ fucked up. Why would she say that? 

You feel Karkat’s hand slip away from your arm, he doesn’t say anything but look at Vriska with livid eyes, in the verge of tears. 

“ _Fuck you both._ ”

His voice is much more shaky than before, it’s spoken through the grit of his teeth; most likely biting back tears. Although this time you can see him clearly now, a tear slowly rolling down his cheek. It makes your heart break and you think that you’re right. Something happened to Karkat and it was _fucked_ up.

You’re about to say something until he turns to look at you, he quickly looks away, _running_ down the stairs.

You’re about to follow him when you feel a hand on your shoulder, most likely _Vriska’s_.

You turn to look at her with an annoyed tone, “ _What_?” you do _not_ trust her one bit. 

Vriska smirks, then takes her hand off your shoulder and observes your face like she’s taking notes or some shit. It makes you shiver in uneasiness, like her eyes are looking right through you. 

It’s fucking _disgusting_. 

“Do you want to take a _picture_? It’ll last longer.” usually you’d say that in a flirty voice, but it comes out in an annoyed version.

Her smirk grows wider, and it reminds you a bit of Aranea.

“No. I just want to take a look at your face.” she smiles, and it’s much creepier than Gamzees. 

You scrunch your face at her in disgust, because you think you just figured them out. Just being near them makes _yourself_ feel disgusting, and they don’t stop staring at you. It’s incredibly disturbing, like they’re scanning every inch of your body.

You quickly fast-walk down the stairs, feeling them _both_ stare you down. 

You begin to look for Karkat, but bump into Jade, with everyone behind her. They all have concerned, doubtful looks on their faces, but you notice that _Sollux_ isn’t there. 

“What?” you say as their expressions only deepen. 

_Oh_. 

They must’ve heard Karkat yell, and probably even saw him running down here, crying. 

Jade finally speaks, her voice not so energetic, and it makes you cringe. 

“Dave, what happened with Karkat?” 

You sigh and run a hand through your hair, it’s sweaty from the dancing and probably even from that whole encounter with Vriska and Gamzee. You rub it on the side of your sweats. 

“Fuck, okay uh— Karkat isn’t mad at me, he was yelling at Vriska. I don’t know why.” you lie at the end, but only because you want to respect Karkat’s privacy.

But it doesn’t sound too convincing. For reason Jade doesn’t seem to believe you, fuck your bad at lying. She looks at you suspiciously, and despite how much you’ve talked to her throughout your time here, she _geniunely_ thinks you did something bad to him. What the fuck? 

She eyes you wearily, “What do you mean you ‘ _don’t know why_ ’?” 

Fuck. She’s onto you. 

“Because they started to fight about shit I don’t _know_ about, listen, I have no reason to fight with Karkat. Ask Vriska!” Jade is still eyeing you suspiciously, and it’s fucking weird to see her act detective, instead of Rose.

You hear Vriska walk down the stairs with Gamzee, and the little bitch that she is, of _course_ puts the blame on you.

God, don’t you _love_ Reality T.V.?

“Ask Vriska what?” she says innocently. 

Oh my _god_. This can’t be happening.

You give her an annoyed look, “That you _literally_ just had an argument with Karkat.” 

Vriska raises a brow at you innocently, fooling everyone else but you. How the fuck could they believe her. She is the most _conceited_ , annoying person in here. 

“What do you mean? What did I do?” she frowns. 

You groan in frustration, “Are you serious? You can’t be serious. Come on. Can Aranea show the fucking footage?” you turn to the camera’s, but nothing happens. Aranea fucking _sucks_.

“You guys _really_ think I did something? You _did_ hear Karkat say ‘ _fuck you both’,_ right?” you turn to everyone, and Rose gives you an empathetic look.

Atleast she believes you.

You’re geniunely offended that they think you did something _bad_ , they probably don’t even trust you anymore. This is fucking ridiculous. 

Jade bites her lip, obviously feeling bad about doubting you, but still looks at you in disbelief. 

“All you have to do is to tell us what you did, Dave.”

You raise your eyebrows in irritation, “ _What_ _I_ _did_? I did fucking nothing! Why would I do something, Jade?”

Jade doesn’t say anything, she is obviously doubting herself for not believing you. She doesn’t question any further. Rose finally steps in to calm everyone down.

“How about we just wait until Sollux comes back? I’m sure Karkat will tell him what happened.” she suggests.

You sigh in relief, “Yeah, how about we do _that_ instead before we go blaming _Dave_.” you glare at Jade, she looks down, feeling awful about her doubtful intentions. 

You leave without hearing everyones response, because you’re just too fucking tired to muster a reply to anyone. This day has been mightily exhausting, and you’re not sure you wanna be here anymore. 

Your about to open the dorm to your room until you feel presence behind you, you find Rose, standing there nervously. 

“ _What.”_

You say in annoyance, and usually you don’t show anyone your angry or annoyed side, but who gives a shit anymore. You’re pissed, hungry, and tired. 

Rose fiddles with the hem of her sweater, “Brother, I know that you didn’t do anything. What happened?”

You place a hand on your doorknob and look away from her, “Look, Rose. I really don’t want to talk about it. I’m _fucking_ tired.” 

“Dave, you can’t keep problems to yourself all the time. Please tell me.” she frowns.

You bite back the need to yell at her unnecessarily, thankfully you don’t, because it would’ve made everything much worse. The last thing you want to do right now is talk about what happened, the thought sends shivers through your body. 

You plead, “Rose, _please_ leave me alone. I don’t need your therapy bullshit right now. I need _sleep_.”

Rose sighs, but gives up with a nod. You turn your head to the doorknob and open it, locking the door behind you as you shut it. Karkat has a key, he’ll be fine. 

You change into a comfy pair of sweatpants and take off your shirt, not even bothering to take a shower. All you need is to sleep away all this stress. 

The last thing that drifts in your mind before you fall into deep sleep, is Aranea’s voice.

‘ _It’s only the beginning.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> plz kudos, subcribe, comment and bookmark! it rly motivates me. im open to cric! 
> 
> also, don’t be offended by my probable controversial comments. they are really just ‘deep’ JOKES, used in a sarcastic way. i’m sorry if it’s too much.. u can just click off fam.


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